US envoy George Mitchell called for a durable truce in Gaza Thursday as spiralling violence threatened to shatter ceasefires that ended a devastating war in the Hamas-run enclave. “It is important to consolidate a sustainable and durable ceasefire and encourage efforts in that regard,” Mitchell told reporters after holding talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah as he continued his maiden tour of the region. The 75-year-old former US senator, who helped broker peace in Northern Ireland in 1998, vowed that President Barack Obama's administration would keep up efforts to achieve peace in the region. “Lasting peace is our objective and the United States will sustain an active commitment to two states living side by side in peace, stability and security,” he said. Mitchell called for the opening of Gaza's borders – sealed by Israel to all but basic humanitarian goods since the Islamist movement Hamas violently seized power in June 2007 – and said that Abbas's Palestinian Authority had to be part of the efforts. “To be successful in preventing illicit trafficking of arms into Gaza there must be a mechanism to allow the flow of legal goods and that should be with the participation of the Palestinian Authority,” he said. Abbas did not speak following the meeting. In Gaza, violence continued to spiral Thursday with 18 Palestinians, including 11 schoolchildren and a pregnant woman, wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting a Hamas policeman in the southern town of Khan Yunis, medics said. The Israeli army said the Hamas man was a member of a squad behind a bombing on Tuesday that killed an Israeli soldier, giving rise to renewed tensions after 10 days of calm that followed Israel's 22-day war on the impoverished Palestinian territory. Israeli officials, in the midst of campaigning for the February 10 legislative poll, vowed that they would hit back hard at any militant strike and warned that Gaza's borders would remain closed if attacks continued. “It is clear that we will react, but we need patience and we have no intentions of showing our plans to the enemy,” Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told army radio.
