ISRAEL-PA 'PEACE' TALKS CANCELLED OVER ISRAELI QALANDIYA CRIME

West Bank, 19 Shawwal 1434/26 August 2013 (MINA) – Peace talks between Israeli and Palestine Authority negotiators expected on Monday have been cancelled after Israeli security forces shot dead three Palestinians during clashes in the West Bank, a Palestinian official said.

“The meeting that was to take place in Jericho (West Bank) … today was cancelled because of the Israeli crime committed in Qalandiya today,” the official said, whithout set a new date, Middle East Online reported as monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).

“What happened today in Qalandiya shows the real intentions of the Israeli government,” Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina, said as reports of the shooting started to emerge.

Also Read: ISRAEL ISSUES ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION ORDERS FOR 22 PALESTINIANS

Medics earlier reported three Palestinians shot dead and 19 wounded by Israeli security forces in Qalandiya camp, between Ramallah and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, very early Monday.

They named the dead as Rubeen Abed Fares, 30, and Yunis Jahjouh, 22, both shot in the chest, and Jihad Aslan, 20, who died of brain damage. The hospital officials said all the casualties had been hit by live ammunition.

An Israeli police spokeswoman said that border police used “riot dispersal means” to disperse a stone-throwing crowd of 1,500 people, but she did confirm the use of live fire.

Also Read: Israel Bans Fatah Deputy Secretary from Entering al-Aqsa Mosque for Six Months

The talks between Israel-Palestinian Authority have been overshadowed by Israeli plans to build more than 2,000 new homes for Jewish settlers on occupied Palestinian territory.

On Sunday, Jerusalem city council’s finance committee approved a budget of $17.3 million (13 million euros) for infrastructure work at the site of the planned new east Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo.

The site hit the headlines in March 2010, when Israel sparked the ire of the US administration by announcing, during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden, that 1,600 new homes would be built there.

Also Read: NEW SETTLERS’ ATTACKS REPORTED IN AL QUDS, JENIN

“The daily killings and ongoing settlement activity are all Israeli messages that aim to destroy the peace process,” Abu Rudeina said.(T/P03/E1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)