GAZA CITY, 29 September 2005 — Israel shut down charities with ties to Hamas across the West Bank and fired artillery into the Gaza Strip for the first time, as it stepped up a five-day offensive against Palestinians despite their pledges to stop firing rockets at Israel.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas prepared for talks with US President George W. Bush seeking to prevent a further escalation.

The fifth anniversary of the Palestinian intifada was marred by the cancellation of a summit between Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, with each side bogged down in bombing raids and rocket attacks.

The postponed summit and growing violence left international hopes of a breakthrough in the peace process seriously dented, despite Israel ending 38 years of military rule in Gaza on Sept. 12.

Israeli warplanes carried out multiple raids as missiles and artillery overnight pounded the Gaza Strip for the first time since the 1967 Middle East War.

Abbas, who announced that he was due in Washington on Oct. 20, said he would use his visit to seek Bush’s help in halting the escalating violence, following talks with regional powerbroker Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

“The United States is a superpower... They have to assume their responsibilities and take action to stop these (Israeli) operations that could provoke a collapse of the situation,” he said.

In Washington, National Security Council officials said privately that the White House so far had nothing to announce on the Abbas visit or on the timing.

The two last met at the White House in May, the first time Bush had received a top Palestinian leader since the beginning of his first term in 2000.

This time, however, Abbas is likely to face criticism, with the Palestinian Authority seemingly incapable of stopping Palestinians from firing rockets into Israel in a relentless cycle of violence that flared on Friday.

Abbas’ talks with Mubarak also focused on the tense situation in Gaza. “We discussed the serious security situation between us and Israel,” Abbas told reporters upon arrival in Gaza City late yesterday.

While in Cairo, Abbas also met with UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen to discuss the issue of armed Palestinians in Lebanese refugee camps.

The rising violence in Gaza also saw a planned Abbas-Sharon summit postponed, with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat warning that “things are slipping out of hand” and urging Washington to intervene.

“The meeting will not take place on Oct. 2, but only once the preparations for this summit have been completed,” Erekat said.

Apache helicopter gunships slammed missiles into offices owned by Abbas’ ruling Fatah party in Gaza City, with other rockets screeching into Palestinian security offices.

Israeli aircraft also attacked a building used by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in central Gaza and bombed three fields in the north which were used for launching rockets. None of the raids resulted in casualties.

The fresh offensive was ordered after Palestinians fired another makeshift rocket at the southern Israeli town of Sderot, and after Hamas kidnapped and killed an Israeli settler. The head of a committee grouping the main armed factions said Tuesday that the organizations had agreed to stop attacks from Gaza.

— With input from agencies