Jewish settler gestures after he was forcibly removed with others by Israeli troops from homes.
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Israeli army Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said Monday that “it would be a bitter mistake to impose curfews and closures” on Palestinian communities, adding that such moves would “work against Israeli interests”.
Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war, but Palestinians demand the territory as part of their future state.
The majority were injured during clashes with Israeli military forces during October and November, with injuries including wounds sustained from live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, and tear gas inhalation.
“Moscow is anxious over the risky march of events on the Palestinian-Israeli track”, the commentary said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has a majority of just one in Israel’s Knesset, or parliament.
“They’re building without authorization, against the accepted rules, and there’s a clear attempt to create political realities”, he remarked to media.
Netanyahu was scheduled to address the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.
Israeli leaders accuse the Palestinian Authority of incitement to violence amid the wave of attacks, fueled by strife over the religious site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem, known as Temple Mount for Jews, holy to both Jews and Muslims.
There are now about 550,000 Jewish settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem combined, according to Israeli government and think-tank statistics.
Under Palestinian law, it is illegal to sell homes to Israelis in the West Bank but a very small number still do so.
Abbas also announced that after consultation with the Council of Arab Ministries of Foreign Affairs, the Palestinian leadership will go to the UN Security Council “to stop settlement expansion over the Palestinian land, as well as to provide global protection for the Palestinian people from Israel’s ongoing attacks, especially by the settlers”. The Palestinians are adamantly opposed.
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Following Friday’s forced eviction of some 20 families and scores of activists in two adjacent Hebron buildings, right wing politicians and activists verbally attacked Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon for fighting settlers rather than terrorists. Some 146 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire during that time, and more than 100 have been identified by Israel as attackers.
