Foreign Minister Shimon Peres publicly apologized yesterday for the tragic outcome in terms of civilian casualties in the killing of Hamas military-wing leader Salah Shehadeh at his home in Gaza City early Tuesday morning.

Peres, who appeared on several foreign television broadcasts yesterday, stressed that "war causes mistakes and the greatest mistake is the war itself." His comments came as the IDF and the intelligence services had reportedly launched a full inquiry into all the circumstances of the attack which resulted in the death of Shehadeh and another Hamas activist, along with 14 civilians including his wife and daughter and 10 other children.

His comments were echoed by Maj.-Gen. Giora Eiland, chief of military planning, who like Peres, [Silvan Shalom], and others, said the plan to kill Shehadeh had been deferred on several occasions due to the presence of civilians.