US President Barack Obama has vowed that "extremists and rejectionists" would not derail the relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations as he opened a peace summit shadowed by Middle East violence.
Wading into Middle East diplomacy in the face of deep skepticism over his chances for securing an elusive peace deal, Obama condemned as "senseless slaughter" a Hamas attack on Tuesday that killed four Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.
"The message should go out to Hamas and everybody else who is taking credit for these heinous crimes that this is not going to stop us from not only ensuring a secure Israel but also securing a longer lasting peace," Obama told reporters.
Obama said progress was made in one-on-one meetings he hosted with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of direct Israeli-Palestinian talks to be held on Thursday for the first time in 20 months.
The summit marks Obama's riskiest plunge into peacemaking, not least because he wants the two sides to forge a deal within 12 months for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.
But Netanyahu also underscored Israel's demands that any final peace deal include security arrangements to ensure a future Palestinian state, which he says must be demilitarized and would not become an "Iranian-sponsored terror enclave."
Deep distrust between the two sides is one of the biggest obstacles to Obama's quest for the so-called two-state solution that has eluded so many of his predecessors.
