U.S. President Barack Obama talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, centre, and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, at the White House in Washington.
Barack Obama accused Hamas terrorists of "senseless slaughter" in attempting to derail Palestinian-Israeli talks, but vowed the killing of four Jewish settlers, including a pregnant woman, wouldn't diminish his efforts to broker a peace deal.
The U.S. President - awarded the Nobel Peace Prize only weeks after taking office - launched a new peace effort at a White House dinner last night with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Earlier, in the Rose Garden, with the right-wing Israeli leader at his side, Mr. Obama denounced Hamas - the elected Palestinian faction that controls the impoverished Gaza Strip area of the Palestinian territories - as "terrorists who are purposely trying to undermine these talks." Hamas, branded a terrorist group by the United States and Canada, has rejected the talks that formally get under way later Thursday.
The long-awaited resumption of talks between Mr. Abbas and the Israeli leader were condemned by Hamas cofounder Mahmoud Zahar as "the start of direct negotiations between someone who has no right to represent the Palestinian people and the brutal occupier, to provide a cover for Judaizing Jerusalem and stealing the land."
Hamas, regarded as a violent Islamic group by most Western governments and a powerful champion of Palestinian rights with a long track record of running social services, claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack in which a lone gunman riddled a settler's car with gunfire.
"The message should go out to Hamas and everyone else who is taking credit for these heinous crimes that this is not going to stop us," Mr. Obama said.
In another attack, two more Israeli settlers - a man and a woman were wounded when a gunman opened fire on their car late Wednesday night.
"There are going to be extremists and rejectionists who, rather than seeking peace, are going to be seeking destruction," said Mr. Obama, who is seeking to echo the 1978 peace-brokering triumph of former president Jimmy Carter, who persuaded Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Meacham Begin to sign the first Arab-Israeli peace treaty.
American presidents have, for decades, sought solutions to the Middle East conflict, but Mr. Obama, unlike some of his predecessors, has launched his effort relatively early in his presidency. He has also set a one-year timeline, seeking to instill a sense of urgency.
Mr. Netanyahu, struggling to hold together a centre-right governing coalition, was even harsher in his condemnation of the attack on the Jewish settlers.
"Four innocent people were gunned down and seven new orphans were added, by people who have no respect for human life and trample human rights into the dust and butcher everything that they oppose," the Israeli leader said.
Mr. Obama hastened to add that Mr. Abbas has also condemned the attack.
An estimated half-million Jews live in Israeli-annexed portions of east Jerusalem and in scores of settlements scattered across the occupied West Bank.
The major and unresolved issues that remain are: Dealing with the burgeoning settlements, finding a practical solution to the "right of return," which in some interpretations could allow the return of millions of descendents of Palestinians who were driven from or fled their homes during the 1948, 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, as well as the vexed and emotive issue of the status of Jerusalem, regarded as the capital of both Israel and any Palestine-to-be.
At the White House, all of the leaders spoke briefly before dinner.
Mr. Netanyahu said he was seeking a "historic compromise that will enable both peoples to live in peace, security and dignity." And then in a dramatic moment, he turned to the Palestinian leader, and said: "President Abbas, you are my partner in peace. It is up to us to overcome the agonizing conflict between our peoples and to forge a new beginning."
Mr. Netanyahu said: "We do not seek a brief interlude between two wars. We do not seek a temporary respite between outbursts of terror. We seek a peace that will end the conflict between us once and for all. We seek a peace that will last for generations.''
Mr. Obama invited the leaders of Jordan and Egypt; President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah to help relaunch the moribund peace process. There have been no face-to-face meetings since December, 2008.
The first negotiating session, chaired by State Secretary Hillary Clinton, is set for Thursday morning.