Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday said the Israeli army would push forward with its latest crackdown on Palestinian fighters, despite Israel's warming ties with the new Palestinian government in the West Bank. Olmert spoke a day after a series of Israeli airstrikes killed seven Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip. Israel also has been targeting fighters in the West Bank, including members of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. Abbas, a moderate who favors peace talks with Israel, has been trying to consolidate his control of the West Bank since Hamas group seized control of Gaza last month. Abbas last week ordered all armed groups, including Fatah gunmen, to disarm as part of his efforts to restore law and order. Olmert told his Cabinet on Sunday that the behavior of the new Palestinian government creates «paths for cooperation,» citing the weapons ban as an important step. «Some of the actions already taken by the Palestinian government ... will help us to find, slowly and cautiously, paths of cooperation between us and them which without doubt will enable us to advance on the diplomatic track,» he said in a statement to reporters. «At the same time, the war on terror continues and will not cease,» he said. «Let nobody have any doubt, this activity will continue in a concentrated way.» He noted the latest attacks in Gaza as well as last week's arrest raids against Fatah fighters in the West Bank city of Nablus.
