Ramallah, March 21: Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas slammed Israel on Sunday over the killing of four Palestinians and said Israeli comments on occupied Jerusalem were not helping restart peace talks, his spokesman quoted him as saying.
“The Israeli escalation and the killing of Palestinians on a daily basis is the actual response of the Israeli government to the Palestinians, the Arabs and to American (peace) efforts, and an answer to the Quartet’s statement,” Abbas was quoted as saying by his spokesman.
Abbas also condemned hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who earlier in the day vowed there would be no Israeli halt on building in Palestinian East Jerusalem.
Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians Sunday at an army check post near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, an army spokeswoman said.
Awarta is an Israeli army check post that controls commercial goods entering Palestinian Nablus.
Medics at Nablus hospital announced earlier Sunday that a Palestinian shot by Israeli soldiers during clashes in the West Bank on Saturday died of his wounds.
Osayed Qadus, 20, was seriously wounded after being shot at Burin, south of Nablus, when Israeli troops soldiers opened fire on a group of protesters, according to medics and Palestinian security officials.
Another Palestinian, 17-year-old Mohammed Qadus, was shot dead by Israeli fire during the same clashes, they said.
—Agencies