"We ought to involve our NATO allies. We ought to involve others in the Middle East," Lugar said

WASHINGTON, August 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – With the flare-up of violence between Israelis and Palestinians after 50 days of lull, largely thanks to the unilateral truce declared by Palestinian factions on June 29, key U.S. lawmakers called Sunday, August 24, for outside military forces to help secure the fading chance for peace - something Palestinians have always sought and Israel adamantly opposed.

"If we're serious about having a situation of stability, a very direct action, I think, is going to be required," Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN.

He said Washington should consider the possibility that U.S. and other nations' troops would be needed to provide stability for Israelis and Palestinians after the resurgence of violence threatening the future of the U.S.-backed roadmap plan, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We ought to involve our NATO allies. We ought to involve others in the Middle East. In other words, we need to think through this carefully," asserted the senior legislator.

Lugar is the most prominent of several U.S. lawmakers pushing for a third-party military force to help dampen the cycle of violence and counter-violence.

A leading Democrat agreed. "I hope we're not there, but we may well be. The Palestinians have wanted a United Nations or an American observer force," Senator Dianne Feinstein of California told CNN.

"I mean, it's clear to me you can't have just a straight observer force. But you have to have some military entity that is going to be able to control the terror. Otherwise, the situation is going to dissolve into nothingness."

"You can't have just a straight observer force…you have to have some military entity," Feinstein said

Palestinians have for years sought international peacekeepers to protect them from Israel, but Tel Aviv, backed by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, rebuffs the idea, making it unlikely to occur in the foreseeable future.

Still, Washington needs to do more to support Palestinian efforts to rein in anti-Israel attacks, said Representative Harold Ford of Tennessee.

"If America is as committed as I believe we are, and as dedicated as our actions suggest at times ... then we're going to have to support the Palestinians, and support particularly Prime Minister (Mahmud) Abbas in more meaningful and bigger ways than we have up to this point," Ford, who recently returned from a trip to the Middle East, told the "Fox News Sunday" program.

The most recent calls for U.S. military involvement came after deadly violence shattered a seven-week-old truce and put peace efforts on hold.

Israeli helicopters gunships killed four Hamas resistance activists in a strike in Gaza City late Friday, the first since Hamas and Islamic Jihad formally called off their unilaterally-declare truce.

The decision was prompted by the Israeli assassination of senior Hamas political leader Ismail Abu Shanab and two of his associates on Thursday.

The White House had no immediate reaction to the latest Israeli attack.

The Israelis had already considered the truce dead after a bombing that killed 21 passengers on an occupied  Jerusalem bus.