RAMALLAH
The Palestinian Authority (PA) said Sunday it would resort to the U.N. Security Council and other international bodies to condemn and end the Israeli "aggression" on Palestinians.
In a statement, the PA Leadership said that it embarked on "intensive contacts to call for an urgent session of the U.N. Security Council to put an end to the ongoing Israeli aggression."
The PA also condemned, what it described, the "collective punishment imposed by Israeli occupation forces in all Palestinian territories."
Tensions in the Palestinian territories have run high since three Israeli settlers went missing earlier this month from the Jewish-only Gush Etzion settlement bloc, located near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
In recent days, Israeli security forces have detained scores of Palestinians – including leading Hamas members, lawmakers and former government ministers – throughout the occupied West Bank.
Earlier Sunday, two Palestinian young men have been killed and others injured during clashes with Israeli forces which raided several parts of the occupied Palestinian territory in the early hours of the day.
The raids come as part of a wide search operation for three settlers, which the Israeli government blamed on Palestinian resistance group Hamas. No Palestinian group has yet claimed responsibility for the alleged kidnapping.
In its Sunday statement, the PA denounced the Israeli raids on the West Bank, and accused the Israeli government of "pushing the situation towards explosion."
"The stepped-up Israeli aggression left six of our people dead and saw [Palestinian] houses ransacked, universities stormed and hundreds detained – all under the pretext of searching for the three missing settlers," the statement added.
www.aa.com.tr/en
