US chief of staff to discuss invading Gaza with Israeli counterpart

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM-- Michael Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, is to start a 24-hour visit to the Hebrew state on Sunday during which he is expected to discuss with Israeli chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi a large scale invasion of the Gaza Strip. The Hebrew radio said that Mullen is to hold a working meeting on Monday with Ashkenazi on a number of intelligence and strategic questions in addition to the Palestinian locally made resistance missiles and the possibility of storming the Strip. This is the first visit for a US top military official to the Hebrew state in ten years and follows the Annapolis conference and the ensuing "ferocious campaign" against the Palestinian resistance especially the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas Movement. US president George Bush is scheduled to visit the Hebrew state in January 2008 in a bid to bolster his administration's efforts to find a final settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.