RAMALLAH, West Bank — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pushed hard today to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, despite the chaos and violence of a week that saw both Palestinian and Israeli civilians killed.

Walking away from talks plays into the hands of militants, Rice said. She blamed Palestinian Hamas radicals for provoking an Israeli military onslaught in the Gaza Strip. The campaign has derailed an already troubled U.S.-backed drive for peace terms this year.

"Negotiations are going to have to be able to withstand the efforts of rejectionists to upset them, to create chaos and violence, so that people react by deciding not to negotiate, " Rice said in Egypt at the start of two days of efforts to rescue negotiations. "That's the game of those who don't want to see a Palestinian state established."

The moderate, U.S.-backed Palestinian leadership in the West Bank suspended peace talks in protest after an Israeli military offensive that killed more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza. That made restoring talks Rice's objective for a trip she had planned to check progress.

Israel launched the offensive to stop rocket attacks by the Hamas militant groups on nearby Israeli cities. Israeli aircraft sent more missiles crashing into Gaza today after more rockets were fired on the southern town of Sderot.

"The people who are firing rockets do not want peace," Rice said. "They sow instability, that is what Hamas is doing."

Rice backed Israel's right to respond to the rocket fire, but said it must avoid causing civilian casualties.