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CRAWFORD, Texas, March 1 (Reuters) - The United States expressed regret on Saturday for clashes that killed more than 60 Palestinians and two Israelis in the Gaza Strip and called for an end to the violence threatening a renewed U.S. peace effort, the White House said.

"The United States regrets the loss of life by Israeli and Palestinian civilians," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "We call for an end to violence and all acts of terrorism directed against innocent civilians."

Johndroe specifically condemned the Palestinian rocket attacks against southern Israel that touched off an Israeli push into Gaza.

"There is a clear distinction between terrorist rocket attacks that target civilians and action in self-defense," he said.

"The United States remains deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and southern Israel," Johndroe added. "There is a political process, there is a real negotiation, there is a path to peace and Palestinian statehood, and these terrorist rocket attacks are a deliberate attack to derail that process."

Israeli forces killed 61 people in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the bloodiest day for Palestinians since an uprising against Israeli occupation began in 2000.

Israel, which lost two soldiers, seemed ready to press home its fiercest air and ground assault since it pulled troops back to the borders of the coastal enclave in 2005.

It blamed Hamas Islamist rockets for provoking four days of fighting, in which dozens of civilians have been among the 96 Palestinians killed. (Editing by Peter Cooney)

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