Israeli actions leading to 'uncontrollable situation'

RAMALLAH－Israel's measures of escalation in the Palestinian territories would push matters to "an uncontrollable situation", warned the Palestinian presidential spokesman on Sunday.

Israel's killing of Palestinians and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's instruction to his army to act without restrictions are "condemned and rejected", said spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh.

On Sunday, three Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, where tensions between the two sides have been flaring for more than two weeks.

A 21-year-old Palestinian man was killed on Sunday in clashes with Israeli soldiers near the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. Mohammed Ghuneim was killed in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, said the ministry.

Witnesses said Ghuneim was shot in the back by Israeli soldiers and died in a hospital.

Israeli military said it opened fire at a man throwing a firebomb at an Israeli vehicle driving on a West Bank highway late on Sunday. The shooting raised the number of Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours to three, among them an unarmed woman who was shot and killed at a military checkpoint near Bethlehem.

Abu Rudeineh also condemned the Israeli government's decision to allocate $111 million to strengthen the separation wall between the West Bank and Israel after the recent wave of shooting attacks.

"The confrontation with the occupation is not over yet and will never end without the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate rights in their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital," the spokesman said.

"The Palestinians live in a new, dangerous and different reality that has created a situation that is impossible to continue.

"The continuation of the current situation will lead to the closure of any political horizon in the future," said the spokesman, adding that the current situation requires comprehensive political changes that to stop Israeli aggression against the Palestinians before matters reach a destructive stage.

In the June 1967 Middle East war, Israel occupied the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, which are claimed by the Palestinians, and has controlled them ever since.

The Palestinians have been seeking to establish a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Tensions between Israel and Palestine have been rising over the past couple of weeks and during the Muslims' fasting month of Ramadan, mainly in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Xinhua - Agencies