Israelis kill 2 militants in Gaza border action

The border area has been calm for the most part since Israel invaded Gaza in December 2008 to try to stop years of Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel, killing more than 1,400 Palestinians — including more than 900 civilians — and destroying large sections of the territory.

But violence flared several weeks ago, and on Saturday, Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers warned they would escalate hostilities against Israel if tensions didn’t subside.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks coming out of Gaza, though much of the rocket fire has been carried out by more radical splinter groups.

But the factions all reject Israel’s right to exist and oppose efforts by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to win a Palestinian state through negotiations with Israel.

Those negotiations ran aground several months ago over Israeli settlement construction. Palestinian leaders, skeptical of ever negotiating a deal with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, said they are pursuing alternatives. Their main fallback strategy is seeking recognition from as many countries as possible of a Palestinian state in territories Israel captured in 1967.

Cabinet Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer of Israel warned yesterday that if Israel doesn’t enter into peace talks with the Palestinians, then “the whole world’’ is likely to recognize a sovereign Palestinian state — a development Israel would not welcome.

“Within a year, we will find ourselves in a situation where the whole world — and I wouldn’t be surprised if even the United States — would support a Palestinian state,’’ he said.

Ben-Eliezer is in the Labor Party, which is more moderate than Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

Over the past two decades, more than 100 countries have recognized an independent Palestinian state, including a string of Latin American countries in the past few weeks.

But major players in the world of Mideast mediation, including the United States and the European Union, have not done so, saying a state should emerge from negotiations, not unilateral actions. If Israel were to lose crucial US support for a negotiated accord, that would severely weaken Israel’s ability to influence the terms of Palestinian statehood.

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, said yesterday that a peace deal with the Palestinians is impossible under current conditions and that Israel should pursue a long-term, interim agreement on security and economic matters. Palestinians have consistently rejected that approach.

Talks broke down three weeks after they began with the expiration of a 10-month moratorium on new settlement construction in the West Bank.