Abbas wary of conflict, Israel destroys homes
PALESTINIAN President Mahmoud Abbas did not want a spike in violence in East Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank to spiral into armed conflict with Israel, he said yesterday.
Four Israelis have been killed since Thursday in a stabbing and a drive-by shooting blamed on Palestinian militants. Police shot dead the knife-wielder and the military arrested five members of Hamas for the shooting.
Two Palestinians, one of them a 13year-old, have been killed and about 170 injured in clashes with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank since Sunday. Another Palestinian man, suspected of having stabbed and wounded an Israeli teen, was shot dead by police in Jerusalem.
With Israeli-Palestinian peace talks dormant since last year, the bloodshed has raised concerns about a wider escalation and possible third Palestinian uprising, though it has not reached the level of past confrontations.
Mr Abbas, at a gathering of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, signalled that he hoped to avoid violent conflict, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled security measures that fell short of a military operation.
Mr Netanyahu announced plans to install security cameras along roads in the West Bank. He was speaking at the Horon military base in the territory, after visiting the place where two Israelis were killed in their car.
“A significant part of the attacks are taking place along the roads,” Mr Netanyahu told reporters.
Mr Abbas said: “We tell them (the Israelis) that we do not want either military or security escalation. All our instructions to our (security) agencies, our factions and our youth have been that we do not want escalation.”
As part of Mr Netanyahu’s pledged steps to stem what he termed a “wave of terrorism”, Israeli forces destroyed the homes of two Palestinian militants and sealed off part of a third in and around Jerusalem before dawn yesterday, the Israeli military said.
The militants carried out attacks on Israelis last year and were all shot dead by Israeli security forces. Their families still resided in the homes.
Israel has said such demolitions were punitive and could serve as a deterrent to other potential attackers. Human rights groups condemn the demolition policy as collective punishment.
Mr Netanyahu said other measures would include a greater Israeli police presence in East Jerusalem.
Recent tensions have been inflamed in particular by frequent clashes between Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli security forces at Jerusalem’s alAqsa mosque compound, Islam’s thirdholiest shrine.
Palestinians fear increasing visits by Jewish groups to al-Aqsa, revered by Jews as the site of biblical temples, are eroding longtime Muslim religious control there.
Mr Netanyahu has said he is committed to maintaining the status quo at al-Aqsa.