Israel launched fresh air strikes on Gaza yesterday as Defence Minister Amir Peretz vowed the massive operation will go on despite so far failing to win the release of a soldier seized two weeks ago.

Forty Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since Israel launched its huge operation last Wednesday, pouring tanks and troops into the Gaza Strip and moving into land evacuated last September after a 38-year occupation.

Israel has rejected a call by Hamas premier Ismail Haniya for a mutual ceasefire, vowing no let-up until Palestinian rocket attacks against the Jewish state cease and the teenage soldier is returned safe and sound.

"So far there has been no success, but we require patience and restraint," Peretz told the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

"The army's action in the Gaza Strip creates reactions and situations that will help bring about the release of the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit," said the defence minister.

"Any halt of our military operations presupposes the release of Gilad Shalit," vowed cabinet secretary Israel Maimon, rejecting the Hamas ceasefire call and "any negotiations to release prisoners" in a swap for the soldier.

Four Palestinians from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades faction loosely affiliated to president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party were wounded early yesterday in an air strike on Gaza City in Israel's 12th straight night of aerial attacks. In Sderot, where Peretz lives, one man was lightly wounded when two Palestinian rockets exploded in the town.

The armed wing of Hamas one of three groups behind the June 25 attack on an army outpost in which Shalit was captured and two other soldiers killed sparking the worst Middle East crisis in months claimed four rocket attacks.

Source: China Daily