Peace talks to proceed despite Jerusalem attack

JERUSALEM — Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will proceed within days despite a shooting attack that killed eight students at a Jewish seminary, Israeli officials said Saturday.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity since there has been no official announcement regarding the talks. The comments came hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for Israel not to abandon peace efforts after a recent escalation of violence.

The attack in Jerusalem on Thursday and the continuing violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel had threatened to stall the U.S.-backed talks that aim for a peace deal by the end of the year.

Abbas had briefly called off the talks after the recent killing of more than 120 Palestinians, including dozens of civilians, in Israeli military operations in Gaza. The Israeli incursion was in response to rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled territory.

But on Saturday, Abbas urged a continuation of the negotiations.

"Despite all the circumstances we're living through and all the attacks we're experiencing, we insist on peace. There is no other path," Abbas said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in his first response to the Jerusalem shooting attack, called the attack "horrible" and compared it to the Gaza militants' rocket attacks.

"The perpetrators of both intend to make our lives unbearable," he said Saturday. "This won't happen."

He did not speak about the peace talks with the Palestinians. But the Israeli officials on Saturday reiterated previous comments that the attack would not bring a halt to the talks, which they would continue sometime in the coming week, which begins Sunday.

Israel and Abbas' West Bank government renewed negotiations in December after a meeting hosted by President Bush in Annapolis, Md.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said that Israel "remains committed to the Annapolis framework."

Israel and the Palestinians were slated to resume talks Thursday in a meeting with a U.S. general assigned to monitor progress, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Saturday. Regev said the meeting was not definite.

The Israeli officials said the talks would be held "on several levels."