JERUSALEM -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas suspended peace talks with Israel yesterday amid growing international criticism of the Jewish state's incursion into the Gaza Strip.
Mounting casualties in Gaza drew protests from European and Arab capitals and sent thousands of Palestinians into the streets across the West Bank, where Israeli troops killed a teenager during a demonstration.
The spike in violence during the past five days is a setback for U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had hoped during her visit here this week to advance peace talks that President Bush helped launch in November with the aim of an accord on Palestinian statehood by the end of his term.
Instead, Rice faces the task of putting talks back on track.
Clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters have killed more than 100 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers.
Nabil abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Abbas, said Israel's "unjust war and open-ended massacre [in Gaza] is obstructing the peace process," making it untenable for Palestinian negotiators to meet with Israeli counterparts "until the aggression ends."
Israeli officials say the incursion by hundreds of troops with tanks and warplanes is intended to push Hamas and other militant groups away from the border, putting their rockets beyond range of Israeli communities that have been hit nearly every day for months.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak indicated yesterday that the assault was a rehearsal for a bigger operation that he said would try to "weaken Hamas rule and, in the right circumstances, even bring it down."
An Israeli attempt to forcibly depose Hamas rulers in Gaza would mark a significant change in Israeli policy, and Barak might have been speaking out of turn.
"There is no such policy," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "Obviously, in the long term, we would like to see the legitimate Palestinian government resume control of the Gaza Strip. Having said that, that is not one of our military objectives."
Hamas leaders dismissed Barak's threats as the latest in a string of counterproductive attempts to weaken the Islamist group's power.
"All the time they are talking about toppling Hamas, and every day Hamas is getting stronger," said Ahmed Yousef, a political adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who was the Palestinian Authority's prime minister until he was fired last summer. "With these bloody massacres they have committed they are making people stand with Hamas."
