Barack Obama’s new US peace envoy to the Middle East flew to Israel yesterday as militants launched the first missile strike on Israel since a ceasefire paused hostilities.

George Mitchell, 75, the mediator who helped to steer factions in Northern Ireland to the Good Friday agreement, flew from Egypt amid new fighting in Gaza that threatened to reignite the three-week war that has cost the lives of about 1,300 Palestinians.

His visit is part of a regional tour to reacquaint himself with the seemingly intractable problems of the Middle East.

It is the former senator’s second mission in the area. The first was almost a decade ago when he wrote a report on the causes of the second Palestinian intifada.

Before leaving Cairo Mr Mitchell said that the first step was to strengthen the fragile truce that took effect after Israel’s air and ground offensive against Gaza’s Hamas leaders. “It is of critical importance,” he said. The ceasefire, however, is already verging on collapse after a series of strikes by the Israeli army and Palestinian militants.

Last night Israeli jets bombed a suspected weapons factory in the southern Gaza Strip shortly after militants fired a rocket across the border. The night before Mr Mitchell’s arrival, Israeli warplanes bombed Palestinian tunnels used for smuggling on the Egypt-Gaza border.

On Monday, Palestinian fighters set off a landmine near the border fence, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding three others. A Palestinian farmer was killed in the ensuing gun battle and Israeli aircraft then attacked and wounded a militant.

Shoring up the truce is no simple matter: Hamas considers Israel’s blockade of its land, sea and air borders an act of aggression to be met with rocket fire; Israel sees its attacks into Gaza as pre-emptive strikes to thwart the rocket attacks that kill its citizens.

Adding to the complexity of the problem, the attack on the patrol was claimed by a group declaring links to al-Qaeda and calling itself the Jihad and Tawhid Brigades.

Mr Mitchell held talks yesterday with Israeli leaders and officials, including Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, and General Gabi Ashkenazi, the army Chief of Staff.

He is due to meet Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, but will not have any direct contact with members of Hamas, which is labelled a terrorist organisation by the US.

— Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday he wanted more than the hand of friendship being extended by President Obama to the Muslim world. Instead, he demanded Washington apologise for its behaviour over the past 56 years.

In a speech in the western city of Kermanshah, the President of Iran said: “They should try to make up for their dark background.”

Mr Obama has declared he is willing to engage in tough but direct diplomacy with Iran.

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