'Doesn't understand Israel': Mahmoud Abbas
Photo: Reuters
Abbas: I don't understand Israeli policies
Palestinian Authority Chairman bitterly attacks Israel’s operations in the West Bank in which five armed terrorists have been killed in recent days: “I don’t know what lies behind the Israeli government’s policies,” he said. 'This is pursuit without any reason.' Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Queria: The entire region might be drawn into a blood soaked war
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas launched a bitter verbal attack on Israel’s military activities in the West Bank. The Palestinian leader blamed the recent escalation in the region on Israel, and said that “these repeated provocations by Israel against the Palestinians are not contributing to efforts by the Authority to keep the peace.”
Rocket Attacks
Shmulik Hadad
For the first time since the IDF’s recent withdrawal from Gaza terrorists fire rockets toward western Negev desert area
Abbas said that the new security deterioration in the West Bank was caused by the IDF’s pursuit of Palestinian members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
“This pursuit is taking place without any reason, and despite all that is happening, we are calling on our brothers in these organizations to show restraint. The Israelis must know that our patience is not eternal. We can’t live with casualties every day – today two were killed in Nablus and before that three were killed in Jenin. I don’t know what lies behind this policy of the Israeli government,” he said.
Palestinian sources also reported that a Palestinian teenager, Udawi Tantawi, 13 years-old, was killed by IDF fire in the West Bank.
The Palestinian leader said during a speech that “Israel’s provocations are severely endangering the entire calm that we are working so hard to keep. We are trying to put a stop to the anarchy of weapons, and the organizations agreed to respect it. There is no armed operation by the Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank, and I believe that all of Israel’s actions have no real reason.”
Ahmed Queria: Regional bloody war on horizon
Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Queria also attacked Israel, describing the IDF’s recent operations as “barbaric and ugly terror… Israel is trying to return us to the cycle of violence. And this, during a time that the Authority is trying to do everything to bring calm that is respected by all the factions.”
Queria said he was surprised by “the international silence in the face of the current slaughter.”
“All this may cause the area to be dragged into a blood soaked war,” claimed Queria.
He called on the international community to immediately try and prevent what he described as “Israel’s escalation.”
