Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called for a halt to rocket fire and a truce with Israel on Thursday after the Israeli army seized 33 senior Hamas figures. "We don't need these futile firings of rockets and they have to cease so that we can reach a reciprocal truce with the Israelis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," Abbas told reporters at a joint press conference with visiting EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Asked if Israel's arrests of the Hamas members were justified, Solana said "No." "The temperature has been going up too much and it's time to get the temperature down," he said. "No violence is going to resolve any problems."
According to AFP, Palestinian information minister Mustafa Barghuti appealed for international intervention after what he said were "kidnappings... a massacre of Palestinian democracy and an aggression against the Palestinian Authority and its institutions."
Also Thursday, Israel attacked a car carrying Hamas activists. The activists escaped unharmed but at least two people nearby were injured in the blast, witnesses said. Other Israeli air strikes targeted Hamas's financial network, the army said.
