PNA condemns Israel for Ramallah clashes

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Monday condemned the killing of three Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah in clashes with Israeli soldiers. Medical sources and witnesses said that Israeli forces shot dead three Palestinians and wounded 20 others during clashes in Ramallah on early Monday morning. The clashes broke out when the Israeli troops stormed Qalandya refugee camp in northern Ramallah as part of the military's regular raids in the West Bank, witnesses said. Residents in the refugee camp said a special Israeli army force tried to break into one of the camp's neighborhoods to arrest Omar al-Khatib, a freed Palestinian prisoner, who was released one month ago after spending ten years in Israeli jail. "After the soldiers arrested al-Khatib, dozens of young men in the refugee camp rained the Israeli force with stones and empty bottles," said one of the residents, adding "the soldiers opened intensive gunfire directly at the people, killing three and wounding more than a dozen." Nabil Abu Rdineh, spokesperson of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a brief statement published by the official state- run news agency "Wafa" that "The violent Israeli crimes and together with the new Israeli tenders to build more settlements are a clear Israeli message toward the peace process," adding " there will be negative reaction to such criminal activities." The Palestinian leadership calls on the United States, the sponsor of the ongoing peace negotiations, "to immediately intervene and block a complete collapse of the peace process... and achieve a just and a comprehensive peace in the region." Meanwhile, Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, also condemned Monday's attack. "The incident is a natural consequence to the resumption of the so-called peace talks one month ago," Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, said in an emailed press statement, who called on the Palestinians "to avenge the crime." Abu Zuhri slammed the PNA for keeping talking with Israel while the latter keeps killing the Palestinians. He called on Palestinian leadership to give the militants a free hand to resume their attacks on Israel. Hamas had reached a ceasefire agreement with Israel brokered by Egypt in last November after Israel waged an eight-day aerial war on the Gaza Strip, which killed more than 170 Palestinians and wounded hundreds. Violence flared in the West Bank as Israel and the Palestinians resumed the peace negotiations one month ago. Three rounds of talks between the two sides have been already held, including one in Washington and two in Jerusalem, but without achieving any results.