BEIJING, July 18 --

An Israeli tank manouvers at a staging area near Kibbutz Mefalsim, in southern Israel, on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip.

Israel has threatened to invade Gaza if Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas does not control militants who have stepped up rocket and mortar attacks ahead of Israel's planned pullout from the coastal strip next month.

    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said all restraints are off and thousands of Israeli troops have massed along the Gaza border.

    Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz also said Israel would launch a "massive, prolonged and intricate" military strike if the Palestinian Authority does not stop the attacks.

    Abbas has pledged to do his utmost to stop the barrages but warned that an invasion of Gaza would "sabotage everything."

    The sudden escalation is the most serious threat yet to a 5-month-old truce that had drastically reduced Palestinian-Israeli violence after more than four years of bloodshed.

    More than 100 rockets and mortars have rained down on Gaza settlements and Israeli villages just outside the territory in the last four days. Hamas leaders say they are retaliating for Israeli violations of the truce.

    Egyptian mediators were meeting on Sunday with Hamas in an attempt to reconstitute the truce, and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was planning a quick trip to the region to try to salvage the cease-fire.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)