PA slams daily Israeli attacks against Palestinians for undermining two-state solution

The Palestinian Authority (PA) said on Tuesday that Israel's daily attacks against the Palestinians undermined the opportunity to implement the two-state solution.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a press statement that "the Israeli forces and settlers attack the Palestinians, their property and their sanctities, which dominate the daily scene of the lives of the Palestinians."

The ministry listed the Israeli violations against the Palestinians in the West Bank on Tuesday, including the demolition of a commercial facility in Salfit, establishment of a settlement outpost west of Jericho, storming of the archaeological site in Sebastia close to the city of Nablus, as well as bulldozing and uprooting olive and fruit trees in Tarqumiya near Hebron.

It said that the Israeli practices "are deepening the gradual annexation of the occupied West Bank by imposing more changes to close the door to the opportunity to embody the Palestinian state on the ground with East Jerusalem as its capital."

Also on Tuesday, Israeli police said a Palestinian gunman was killed after wounding six Israelis in a shooting attack outside a shopping mall in the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, while the Israeli military said in statement that a Palestinian assailant was "neutralized" by Israeli soldiers in the southern West Bank after attempting to stab them.

The PA urged the international community to take necessary measures and practical steps to protect the two-state solution, the statement said.

The Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have stalled since 2014 due to differences on major issues including Israel's settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories and the establishment of a future independent Palestinian state. The Palestinians want to establish an independent state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

(Xinhua)