Israeli military: Palestinian gunman who wounded 3 shot dead

Netanyahu’s comments followed the announcement on Friday by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius at a meeting of French diplomats in Paris that if the French initiative to convene a peace conference fails, then Paris would officially recognize a Palestinian state.

Fabius said that, if the conference ended in failure, France would unilaterally recognize the state of Palestine.

“Peace negotiations must have a time limit and guarantee the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital”, he said. “We are willing to enter direct negotiations without preconditions”.

Despite anger in the US administration over Israeli settlement building, there is little prospect of President Barack Obama supporting any initiative that could upset the US Jewish lobby 10 months before an election.

The Palestinians on Saturday welcomed the initiative. Ban angered Israel by saying last week that it is “human nature to react to occupation”. Palestinian officials said he worked as a bodyguard for a Palestinian prosecutor in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

WEST BANK ATTACK Since October, Palestinian attacks, partly fuelled by tensions over the freeze in peace talks, have killed 26 Israelis and a USA citizen.

The Palestinian people, whether under occupation or under siege, in exile and blocked by Israel from returning to their homes, or denied their right to self-determination, have the legitimate right to resist the military occupation and its manifestations such as the denial of their freedom and human rights, the confiscation of their lands, or the building and expansion of Israeli colonies on their lands.

Israeli forces shot and killed another Palestinian on Sunday after alleging that the victim opened fire on the Tel Aviv regime’s soldiers. “You were first and I am following you”, the Beit El assailant, Amjad Abu Omar, wrote on Facebook.

Palestinians seek a state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, parts of which have been occupied by Israel since 1967.

Abbas stressed the need to hold an global conference devoted to the issue and activate the UN Security Council’s role vis-a-vis the Palestinian national cause. Sweden became the first European Union member nation to recognise the Palestinian state in 2014.