However, the report recommended that both sides should work to de-escalate tensions by exercising restraint and refraining from provocative actions and rhetoric.
Advertisement
The Quartet – the US, UN, EU and Russian Federation – was formed in 2002 as a group of mediators to try to give impetus to faltering peace talks.
The head of a special Federation Internationale de Football Association committee aimed at improving soccer relations between Israel and the Palestinians says conflict and politics are the main issues hindering progress.
Relations between the rightist Israeli leader and the Democratic president have yet to recover from their feud over last year’s USA -led nuclear deal with Israeli foe Iran.
“The report highlights the murderous results of the murderous lies spread by the Palestinian Authority”, Danon said. “We’re not looking for serious, substantive, U.N. Security Council action on this report”.
The Middle East diplomatic quartet urged Israel to stop building settlements and Palestinians to cease incitement to violence in a much-awaited report on Friday that drew a frosty response from both sides.
Israel categorically holds Hamas responsible for rocket attacks from Gaza.
Attacks fell significantly in frequency this year, but incitement to violence remained troubling, the report said.
The quartet’s report also condemns an illicit arms build-up and militant activity in Gaza, which, coupled with a lack of Palestinian unity and a dire humanitarian situation in the strip, “feed instability” and stand in the way of a negotiated solution to the conflict.
In summary, the Quartet reiterated that a negotiated two-state outcome is the only way to achieve an enduring peace that meets Israeli security needs and Palestinian aspirations for statehood and sovereignty, ends the occupation that began in 1967, and resolves all permanent status issues.
Nabil Abu Rdineh, spokesman of the PNA presidency, said in an official press statement that “any report, which doesn’t include a complete withdrawal back to 1967 borders, including the occupied city of Jerusalem and doesn’t include the illegalization of settlements would never lead to real and everlasting peace”. Medics said they treated two people.
But initial reaction to the report from both sides suggests it could serve as a point of contention. During the same period, Israeli troops as well as some armed civilians have killed about 200 Palestinians – a lot of them said by Israel to be attackers. “In the most intense period, there were three to four attacks per day”, the report found, adding that the perpetrators were mostly “young unaffiliated individuals”. But recent terrorist attacks, including a bus bombing in Jerusalem in April and the shooting deaths of four Israelis at a Tel Aviv cafe in June, highlighted the ongoing bloodshed. Even some senior Israeli officials have expressed concern about the excessive use of force in such operations.
Israeli forces frequently bomb the besieged coastal enclave using disproportionate force in violation of global law. That means the Israeli military has full authority over development in Area C, the report said.
The UN envoy reiterated several times in his remarks the urgent need for the parties to engage on these recommendations: “The Quartet has outlined a reasonable set of steps that, if implemented sincerely and resolutely, with support from the global community, could set Israelis and Palestinians firmly along a navigable course towards establishing a comprehensive peace with historic implications for the entire region”.
Advertisement
Israeli warplanes Saturday pounded several locations across the Gaza Strip, in yet another ac t of aggression.
