American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will make another visit to the Middle East next week in an effort to advance negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). She is due to arrive Sunday and remain until Thursday, American State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters at a news briefing in Washington Wednesday.
Her trip will come as Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists escalate their rocket attacks on the Negev. Longer-range rockets hit Ashkelon Wednesday evening, exploding near Barzilai Hospital. Responding to a journalist's question on Wednesday's Kassam attack that killed one Israeli, Casey said, "There always are going to be things that will happen that will try and distract or sideline parts of these discussions. But the important thing is that in President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert, we have two leaders who are committed to moving forward on what is a very difficult set of negotiations to resolve this longstanding problem and bring about a two-state solution."