Palestine condemns Israeli escalation in West Bank

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the Israeli escalation in the West Bank city of Jenin.

A Palestinian youth was shot dead by Israeli forces early Saturday in Jenin during a raid. Islamic Jihad movement said the young man was a member of its military wing, the Saraya al-Quds Brigades.

According to eyewitnesses, Israeli forces laid a siege to the house of Raad Hazem, who is accused by Israeli forces of carrying out a shooting attack in Tel Aviv on Thursday, in which three Israelis were killed.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the current and deliberate Israeli escalation against our people,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry accused Israel of seeking to “replace the negotiated political solution to the conflict with security solutions that reflect the real absence of an Israeli peace partner.”

The statement went on to hold Israel fully responsible for the repercussions of the current escalation in the Palestinian territories.

The Israeli army deployed military reinforcements in the line of contact area in the occupied West Bank, the third time in less than two weeks.

“The Israeli army will continue to do everything in its power to protect the line of contact and preserve the security of the State of Israel and its citizens,” the army said in a statement.

The Line of Contact implies Israeli military presence in the area near the Green Line, Jerusalem and its neighborhoods, as well as the major settlement blocs in the West Bank.

US-sponsored peace talks collapsed in 2014 over Israel’s refusal to halt settlement building and release Palestinians imprisoned before 1993.