Tuesday 20 Oct 2015 - 20:54 Makkah mean time-7-1-1437
Jerusalem (IINA) - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned of a “dangerous escalation” and urged Israelis and Palestinians to move quickly to calm nearly three weeks of unrest during a surprise visit to Jerusalem on Tuesday.
“My visit reflects the sense of global alarm at the dangerous escalation in violence between Israelis and Palestinians,” he told journalists after meeting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. He warned: “If we do not act fast, the dynamics on the ground will only get worse.” Ban is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later Tuesday and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday morning. The violence, including a wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car attacks against Israelis, has raised fears of a full-scale uprising. “It is not too late to avoid a broader crisis,” Ban said, urging renewed peace efforts, with negotiations at a standstill for more than a year.
“In my meetings today and tomorrow, with the Israeli and Palestinian leadership, I will be appealing to all to make concerted efforts to limit new incidents on both sides ... We must not allow extremists on either side, or those who believe violence is the answer, to further fuel the conflict.” He said that “beyond the immediate tensions, what is missing is the resolve to restore a political horizon for talks, and a political process that delivers real results and peace.” “We must, for the future of our children, come back from this dangerous abyss, safeguard the two-state solution, and lead people back to the road toward peace.”
Meanwhile, At least two Palestinians, one in the occupied West Bank and another in Gaza, have been killed by Israeli fire, while an Israeli settler died of his wound in a ramming attack. The fresh unrest on Tuesday brings the death toll to 47 Palestinians and nine Israelis. A Palestinian man identified as 24-year-old Adi Hashem Masalmeh was killed by Israeli forces near the city of Hebron in the West Bank after he allegedly tried to stab an Israeli soldier. Israeli fire on Tuesday also killed 27-year-old Ahmed al-Serhi during clashes in the Gaza Strip border with Israel, Gaza medics said, in the latest unrest to erupt in the coastal enclave.
In a separate incident on Tuesday, an Israeli settler died hours after he was reportedly run over by a Palestinian man near Hebron. Witnesses said the settler was attacking cars in the area before he was hit by one of the vehicles. Meanwhile, violent clashes broke out between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces at a rally in Beit El near Ramallah, where Israeli forces used tear gas to disperse the crowds. Triggered by Israeli incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound last month, violence and protests against Israel's occupation have increased in frequency across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. On Monday, Israeli security forces arrested Hassan Yusef, one of Hamas' top figures in the West Bank, in an overnight raid near Ramallah on Monday.
HA/IINA
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