MIDDLE EAST: Israel vows to hold Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responsible for any Gaza violence, as Palestinians celebrate the unity government

Record ID: 398590

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Israel vows to hold Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responsible for any Gaza violence, as Palestinians celebrate the unity government
  • Date: 2nd June 2014
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (JUNE 02, 2014) (REUTERS) SPOKESMAN OF THE ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, MARK REGEV (SOUNDBITE) (English) SPOKESMAN OF THE ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, MARK REGEV, SAYING: "Today, President Abbas took a step backwards away from peace. He embraced a ruthless terrorist organization directly responsible for the murder of hundred of innocent civilians and a group that calls fo
  • Embargoed: 17th June 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, Gaza, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAAJE109MIYJCGEN88NXA1WKNGZ
  • Story Text: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet responded on Monday (June 02) with a threat to hold Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the new unity government responsible for any attacks against Israel, alluding to sporadic rocket from Gaza to which Israel has thus far responded by bombing militant strongholds in the coastal territory.
    "The agreement with Hamas makes Abbas directly responsible for any terrorist activity from Gaza," Netanyahu said in a statement summing up the ministers' meeting.
    "Today, President Abbas took a step backwards away from peace. He embraced a ruthless terrorist organization directly responsible for the murder of hundred of innocent civilians and a group that calls for my country's destruction. Now the international community simply can't continue with business as usual with a Palestinian government that is based on an alliance with the group that is been officially declared by the international community a terrorist group," the spokesman of the Prime Minister, Mark Regev, said.
    Netanyahu urged world leaders not to rush into recognising the Palestinian unity government, and Israel barred three Gaza-based ministers from travelling to the West Bank to be sworn in.
    Abbas swore in a Palestinian unity government on Monday in a reconciliation deal with Hamas Islamists that led Israel to freeze U.S.-brokered peace talks.
    Palestinians in Khan Younis celebrated the forming of unity government and lit fireworks.
    Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is dependent on foreign aid, appeared to be banking on Western acceptance - over Israeli objections - of a 16-member cabinet of what he described as politically unaffiliated technocrats.
    Setting a policy in line with U.S. and European Union demands, the Western-backed leader said his administration would continue to honour agreements and principles at the foundation of a peace process with Israel.
    Hamas, which advocates Israel's destruction, has run the Gaza Strip since seizing the territory from Abbas's Fatah forces in a brief civil war in 2007. Numerous reconciliation efforts, largely brokered by Egypt, have failed over power-sharing.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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