Israeli FM vows to strike back at Hamas, Egypt urges restraint

"Enough is enough. The situation is going to change," Livni said in Cairo after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip since a truce expired six days ago.

"Unfortunately there is one address to the situation of the people in the Gaza Strip, this is Hamas, Hamas controls them, Hamas decided to target Israel, this is something that has to be stopped and this is what were going to do," she was quoted by AFP as saying.

"Yesterday's escalation was unbearable," Livni said after Gaza militants hit Israel with their biggest rocket barrage in six months to avenge the killing of three fighters from the Islamist movement.

"Hamas needs to understand that our aspiration for peace does not mean that Israel will take this situation any longer," Livni said at a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit.

"Hamas’s control of the Gaza Strip is not only Israel’s problem... but what we are doing is an expression of the needs of the region."

"The situation in the Gaza Strip has become an obstacle on the way of the Palestinians toward a state," added Livni, who has vowed to topple Hamas if her Kadima party wins a general election in February.

Livni's visit came after a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas expired last Friday. Egypt had brokered that truce, and Mubarak expressed hope that the agreement could be renewed, if only informally.

Livni's meeting in Cairo originally was designed to renew the Egyptian-mediated truce. But after militants pummeled Israel with more than 80 rockets and mortars on Monday, Livni dismissed that option.

She has been heading the Israeli negotiating team in peace talks with the Palestinians that resumed in November last year but have failed to make any visible headway since.

EGYPT URGES RESTRAINT

The Egyptian president urged Livni for Israel’s restraint in responding to renewed rocket and mortar barrages from the Gaza Strip, and said he also wanted the militant Palestinian Hamas to halt its fire immediately.

Mubarak said he expects Gaza’s Islamic militant Hamas rulers to immediately halt their fire on Israel, an Israeli official told AP. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Abul Gheit, whose government mediated the six-month truce that expired on Friday, called for restraint in the impoverished territory that has been ruled by Hamas since it routed the rival Fatah movement in June 2007.

"Egypt has made clear that there should be restraint and no escalation and an alleviation of the humanitarian situation," he said, saying Israel should refrain from "collective punishment."

He said Egypt would continue its mediation efforts, but expressed pessimism that a new truce could be achieved.