A senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Saturday that Israel would consider deporting Yasser Arafat if the Palestinian leader continued to try to "scuttle the peace process." Speaking after Sharon told a British newspaper that European leaders were undermining a fledgling peace effort by maintaining ties with the Palestinian leader, Raanan Gissin accused Arafat of sabotaging Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister directing peace moves with Israel. Gissin told that while Israel had not yet changed its policy on deporting Arafat, it told the United States "that if Arafat continued to try and scuttle the peace process and undermine Abu Mazen (Abbas), we will have no recourse but to bring the question to renewed discussion." Israel has weighed deporting Arafat in the past, but under international pressure - including U.S. opposition - has not followed through. At the moment Israel's position is that Arafat can travel from his Ramallah headquarters, but might not be allowed to return. The United States has sided with Israel in trying to isolate Arafat and to bolster Abbas. Both countries have accused Arafat of supporting terrorism, and Arafat reluctantly appointed Abbas to the newly created position of prime minister in April. Also Italy, which took over the European Union's rotating presidency this month, appears to be trying to steer the union away from Arafat. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini urged his EU allies Friday to strengthen the power of Abbas, rather than focusing their attention on Arafat; he called Abbas the only Palestinian "negotiating authority." Last month, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi traveled to the Mideast, met Sharon and avoided Arafat. Sharon has often refused to meet with foreign leaders who also meet with Arafat. But public opinion polls indicate that the Palestinian public continues to see Arafat as its leader. "Sharon knows that Arafat is not the issue," said Palestinian legislator Saeb Erekat. "He's using Arafat as an excuse not to implement the road map." Meanwhile in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, 45 children of Palestinian prisoners launched a hunger strike to pressure Abbas to win their parents' release. The children are aged between 10 and 15. "We call on Abu Mazen to not forget my father. I will go hungry until the people of the world remember my father and our parents," said Randa Qishda, 14. The release of prisoners is crucial to Palestinians who see it as key in any peace process. Palestinian officials say Abbas's credibility is at stake, and some see a deliberate design by Israel's hawkish government. "Sharon is working on obstructing the road map," Arafat told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he has been blockaded by Israel after waves of bomb attacks last year. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A Palestinian makes the victory sign with her chained hands during a demonstration to demand the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails in the West Bank town of Bethlehem Saturday July 12, 2003. (AP Photo/Eyad Hamad)