While arresting 70 Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, Israel took nearly 70 foreign ambassadors to its border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as part of a diplomatic campaign to enlist international support for tougher action against the enclave's Hamas rulers.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told the envoys at the Erez crossing with Gaza that cross-border rocket fire by militants had created an "unbearable" situation that would only get worse.
"Israel must act in order to reduce these threats," she said.
But a large-scale military offensive in densely populated Gaza, where an Israeli blockade has already fueled fears of a humanitarian crisis, could prove a tough sell for Israel.
Ramiro Cibrian-Uzal, the ambassador of the European Union to Israel, condemned the rocket fire and called for it to stop immediately and unconditionally. Shortly after diplomats left the much-bombarded town of Sderot, a rocket hit a house there.
But the EU envoy told Reuters after the tour: "The European Union does not consider a large military operation in Gaza to be a good idea and we do not believe it will bring a permanent solution to the problems Israel is confronted with."
Only last month, Israel was forced to back down after an international uproar over debilitating fuel cuts to Gaza's main power led to blackouts.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has so far been wary of launching a major ground operation, which could cause heavy casualties, arguing there were no "overnight solutions" to daily rocket fire from Gaza that has inflamed Israeli public opinion.
But he faces growing domestic pressure after Hamas claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in southern Israel last week and an 8-year-old Israeli boy lost part of his leg to a rocket strike in Sderot on Saturday. Olmert, who visited Germany to seek support over Gaza, says Israel is at "war."
Israel says it can maintain parallel tracks with the Palestinians, one aimed at breaking Hamas's hold on Gaza, and the other aimed at reaching a statehood agreement with Occupied West Bank-based Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Western-backed forces were defeated by Hamas in Gaza last year.
The rocket attacks have sparked debate inside and outside Olmert's government, with senior ministers calling for the military to assassinate Hamas political as well as military leaders and to flatten those areas in Gaza from where the rockets are launched.
Frequent Israeli air strikes and ground incursions into the besieged Gaza Strip have killed at least 300 Palestinians in the past year, including dozens of civilians, but failed to prevent rocket fire, which killed a total of two Israelis over the same time period.
Shunned by the West for refusing to renounce violence after beating Abbas's Fatah faction in a parliamentary election two years ago, Hamas says it would cease fire if Israel stops its military operations in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank.
Hamas is also demanding an end to an Israeli-led blockade that has cut supplies to the territory's 1.5 million people.
Although Abbas's Fatah faction remains deeply hostile to Hamas following its seizure of the Gaza Strip in June, the president and his West Bank-based government have publicly criticized Israel for stepping up its military action and threats to kill Hamas leaders.
While advancing its case concerning Gaza, the Israeli Army announced the "arrest" of 70 "wanted" Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank on Wednesday, including 42 in the southern town of Beit Ommar.
Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops entered the town early Wednesday and imposed a curfew before carrying out the abductions.
In January, two members of Islamic Jihad from Beit Ommar were killed in an attack on an illegal Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
Meanwhile, a militant and another Palestinian were shot and wounded during an Israeli attack near the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Wednesday, according to local medics.
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