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UN CHIEF: ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN KILLINGS MUST BE PROBED![]() UN chief Ban Ki-moon
has urged an end to spiralling violence as he met Palestinian president Mahmoud
Abbas in Ramallah, saying all recent killings must be thoroughly
investigated. Ban's visit on
Wednesday was aimed at calming three weeks of deadly unrest in which 50
Palestinians and eight Israelis were killed across Israel and the Palestinian
territories. "We will
continue to support all efforts to create the conditions to make meaningful
negotiations possible," Ban told journalists after meeting Abbas in the
West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday. "But ultimately
it is for Palestinians and Israelis to choose peace. Our most urgent challenge
is to stop the current wave of violence and avoid any further loss of
life." Ban, who met Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, said that "the only way to
end the violence is through real and visible progress toward a political
solution, including an end of the occupation". "I have
stressed to both Israeli and Palestinian leaders the urgent need to reaffirm
through words and deeds that they are partners for peace," he said. Al-Aqsa Mosque
governing rules Abbas called on
Israel to strictly respect rules governing East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque
compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. Clashes between
Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters at the compound in September preceded
the current wave of violence. Netanyahu has
repeatedly accused Abbas of inciting violence by suggesting that Israel wants
to change the status of the compound, while Israeli authorities have allowed an
increasing amount of Israeli visits to the site. Muslims fear Israel
will seek to change rules governing the site. Jews are allowed to visit but not
pray to avoid provoking tensions. "The continued
occupation and aggression against Christian and Muslim holy sites in East
Jerusalem, particularly against Al-Aqsa, opens the door to a religious
conflict, which has unfortunately started," Abbas told journalists. "We don't want
it and we are warning over its consequences," he said. Since the beginning
of October, 50 Palestinians have been killed in shootings and clashes with
Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, while eight
Israelis have been killed in knife and gun attacks. One Eritrean asylum
seeker was killed after he was mistaken for a Palestinian attacker during a
raid in southern Israel. On Tuesday, an
Israeli settler was run over by a vehicle near Hebron, in what the Palestinian
driver said was an accident. Rights groups have
warned that Israel is using excessive force against Palestinians and that some
of the incidents amounted to extrajudicial killings. The violence has
been triggered in part by recent visits by Jewish groups to the Al-Aqsa Mosque
compound in occupied East Jerusalem, coupled with Israeli restrictions on
Palestinian access to the mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites. Source: Al
Jazeera |
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