Peres: Bombing in Gaza was `100 percent a mistake'

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said yesterday that the Israel Defense Forces' bombing of Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh's apartment in Gaza last Monday had been an "absolute mistake."

"Yes, it was a miscalculation, 100-percent a mistake. The outcome shows clearly that we used the wrong weapon. The bomb caused more harm than good," Peres told the German news magazine, Der Spiegel, in an interview released ahead of publication yesterday.

The Israeli strike in a crowded neighborhood of Gaza City killed 16 people aside from the Hamas leader and injured more than 150.

Peres added in the Der Spiegel interview that he had "doubts" about Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's commitment to peace in the Middle East. Though he confessed to doubts about whether Sharon could be considered a partner for peace, Peres vowed to the German magazine that he would remain in Israel's unity government for as long as he could "serve as a balancing factor."

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer said late last week that steps such as a settlement freeze and the dismantling of illegal outposts should be taken in the name of an "improved atmosphere" between Israel and the Palestinians. Kurtzer spoke on Thursday during a meeting between an Israeli diplomatic team, headed by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and members of the international task force for reforms in the Palestinian Authority.

Last week, senior U.S. officials told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's emissaries - his chief of staff, Dov Weisglas, and Israel Defense Force Major General Moshe Kaplinski - that they were abiding by the demand that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat be replaced and that no diplomatic contacts were being held with the PA leader.