Livni Warns Against Gaza Invasion

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RAMALLAH, West Bank, 8 May 2007 — Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni cautioned yesterday against a hasty decision to invade Gaza over the resumption of rocket strikes, saying the government must not repeat mistakes of last summer’s Lebanon War.

Livni requested that the military echelon present its plans, as well as a number of alternative options, and that the Foreign Ministry be involved in any decision on how to proceed.

“I think that the time has come to change the way of working, both in the government and in the relationship between the military and diplomatic echelons,” she told a joint press conference with her German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said following a barrage of rockets fired on Israeli targets last Saturday that the Jewish state is prepared for an operation in Gaza. “We are prepared for a war in Gaza more than we were in the Second Lebanon War,” Peretz said. “There is a plan.”

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