The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Islamic Hamas movement on Sunday warned that "Israeli attacks on holy places" could spark tension across the world.
The warning was made after tens of Palestinians were wounded by Israeli riot police in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Witnesses said that some 150 Palestinian prayers and a group of Jews clashed in the campus which contains al-Aqsa mosque and the Western Wall, they are Muslim and Jewish holy cites.
The Israeli police, which accompanied by the Jewish worshippers, fired tear gas and sonic blasters at the Muslim crowds and beat them with sticks, witnesses said.
"This is a new Israeli aggression on a pure part of the Muslims' belief and this alerts of unfavorable consequences, not only on the Palestinian people, but also on the entire world, including Israel," said Mahmoud al-Habbash, Palestinian minister of religious affairs.
He accused Israel of using excessive force "to blow up the peace process, evade from the political obligations and gets its government out from impasse after the international community knew that government's intentions against peace and stability in the region."
"If the international community did not intervene, everyone will repent," al-Habbash, who is also an aide to president Mahmoud Abbas, told Xinhua.
Meanwhile, Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said that "the continuation of attacks on Islamic sacred places may open a round of confrontation against the Israeli occupation."
Ismail Radwam, a Hamas spokesman, told Xinhua that the consequences of the Israeli measures in Jerusalem "would be reflected in the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic nations."
On Sept. 28, 2000, former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon, an opposition leader then, broke into the complex of al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, fueling the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising which is still glowing.
Radwan accused the PNA, which holds sway in the West Bank, of cracking down against the Palestinian militant groups in the West Bank, adding that "the Israeli occupation would never have dared to carry out such an aggression if the PNA were not uprooting the resistance."
Abbas has finally met Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week, in protest against the continued Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
Most of the Palestinian factions slammed the U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian meetings in New York, saying they annulled the PNA's stances not to resume the peace negotiations before the settlement stops.
Source:Xinhua
Showing posts with label PNA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PNA. Show all posts
Monday, September 28, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Hamas: don't renounce capital
Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh has warned Palestinian National Authority (PNA) officials not to "renounce Jerusalem or the refugees" during Tuesday's three-way meeting with the presidents of Israel and the US.
Speaking on Sunday at a ceremony in a Gaza City stadium marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Mr Haniyeh said: "No-one has the right to give up on Jerusalem or the Palestinian refugees. From Gaza, from a place of strength, we say we will not relinquish our rights."
US President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PNA President Mahmoud Abbas are scheduled to hold talks on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York today.
The meeting is part of US efforts to revive Middle East peace talks, which have been stalled due to Tel Aviv's refusal to stop illegal settlement construction.
Mr Haniyeh insisted that "neither the Palestine Liberation Organisation or any other faction has a mandate to sign an agreement hurting the Palestinian people's principles and rights."
If any such agreement is reached, "it will not be respected by our people," he said.
The de facto prime minister of the PNA blasted proposals made by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell as "no different than offers by previous US administrations," which, he argued, were designed to achieve a compromise at the expense of Palestinians' fundamental rights.
Mr Haniyeh also urged the Arab League and European countries to use "all means" to ensure that a recently released report detailing war crimes committed during Israel's December-January war on the Gaza Strip is brought to the attention of the UN security council and then referred to prosecutors.
"We hope the report will not be doomed to the fate of the dozens of reports that Israel has condemned for decades," he said.
The 575-page UN report drawn up by Richard Goldstone, a former South African judge, confirmed that Israel committed multiple war crimes during the assault, which killed over 1,400 Palestinians.
And it found that those Palestinian resistance fighters who fired rockets into Israeli residential areas also violated international humanitarian law.
Israeli jets struck three tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip morning after Palestinian militants fired two Qassam rockets into the western Negev desert.
And on Sunday, Israeli troops killed two men near the border fence in northern Gaza who had allegedly been planting explosives.
The men were later identified as Abed Hafiz al-Silawi of the Popular Resistance Committees and Mahmoud Natzir of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Speaking on Sunday at a ceremony in a Gaza City stadium marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Mr Haniyeh said: "No-one has the right to give up on Jerusalem or the Palestinian refugees. From Gaza, from a place of strength, we say we will not relinquish our rights."
US President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PNA President Mahmoud Abbas are scheduled to hold talks on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York today.
The meeting is part of US efforts to revive Middle East peace talks, which have been stalled due to Tel Aviv's refusal to stop illegal settlement construction.
Mr Haniyeh insisted that "neither the Palestine Liberation Organisation or any other faction has a mandate to sign an agreement hurting the Palestinian people's principles and rights."
If any such agreement is reached, "it will not be respected by our people," he said.
The de facto prime minister of the PNA blasted proposals made by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell as "no different than offers by previous US administrations," which, he argued, were designed to achieve a compromise at the expense of Palestinians' fundamental rights.
Mr Haniyeh also urged the Arab League and European countries to use "all means" to ensure that a recently released report detailing war crimes committed during Israel's December-January war on the Gaza Strip is brought to the attention of the UN security council and then referred to prosecutors.
"We hope the report will not be doomed to the fate of the dozens of reports that Israel has condemned for decades," he said.
The 575-page UN report drawn up by Richard Goldstone, a former South African judge, confirmed that Israel committed multiple war crimes during the assault, which killed over 1,400 Palestinians.
And it found that those Palestinian resistance fighters who fired rockets into Israeli residential areas also violated international humanitarian law.
Israeli jets struck three tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip morning after Palestinian militants fired two Qassam rockets into the western Negev desert.
And on Sunday, Israeli troops killed two men near the border fence in northern Gaza who had allegedly been planting explosives.
The men were later identified as Abed Hafiz al-Silawi of the Popular Resistance Committees and Mahmoud Natzir of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
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