Barack Obama arrives in Ramallah to meet with Mahmoud Abbas

Relatives of prisoners of Palestinians held in Israeli jails burn pictures of US President Barack Obama US President Barack Obama on Thursday condemned Israel's ongoing settlement building as unhelpful to the pursuit of peace. "We do not consider continued settlement activity to be constructive, to be appropriate, to be something that can advance the cause of peace," he said in a joint news conference with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
The president has officially arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, on his first visit to the region since he came to office in 2009.
After spending the morning in Jerusalem, the US president arrived in Ramallah by helicopter, where he was welcomed by Abbas and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Hours before Obama was to board his helicopter to fly to Ramallah to meet the Palestinian leadership, two rockets fired by militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip hit southern Israel.
US President Barack Obama was quick to condemn the attack, saying the territory's Hamas rulers were responsible for stopping it.
"We saw the continuing threat from Gaza again overnight with the rockets which targeted Sderot.
"We condemn this violation of this important ceasefire that protects both Israelis and Palestinians, a violation that Hamas has a responsibility to prevent," he said of a ceasefire deal which ended eight days of bloodshed in November.
President Obama and the two PA leaders are set to hold a meeting for the next few hours at the Beera Youth Centre, where he will give a speech to young Palestinian’s, before heading off to Bethlehem to visit the iconic Mahd Church.
Despite rumours, the US leader will not be paying a visit to the tomb of former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat.
Security in and around Ramallah has been tightened in light of the president’s visit with the deployment of extra guards, police and security forces around the city.
The US president landed in Tel Aviv yesterday for a three-day visit to Israel and Palestine. He is expected to deliver another speech to university students in Jerusalem later on Thursday.
The agenda of Obama’s meeting with President Mahmoud has not been declared but Saeb Erekat , member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s (PLO) Executive Committee, told Arabstoday: "President Abbas will inform the US President that he refuses to resume negotiations with Israel."
"The Palestinians will ask Obama to convince Israel to fulfil its duties," said Erekat.
Nabil Shaath, member of Fatah’s Central Committee said: "The Palestinian side will inform Obama that this year is a critical year, in regards to the two-state solution, and this solution will be under threat, if Israeli settlement expansion continues.”
Meanwhile, the President of the Palestinian government in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, has said he doesn’t expect Obama’s visit “to change anything for the Palestinian cause."
In a statement released on Thursday, Haniyeh said: "US policy doesn’t support ending the occupation, but rather legitimises its settlements under the banner of peace."