Palestinians Slam Lack of Israeli Cooperation after Attacks
A top Palestinian negotiator on Friday slammed what he said was Israel's unwillingness to coordinate on security, after an Israeli settler was killed in the occupied West Bank.
Friday's incident, in which suspected Palestinian militants bludgeoned to death a settler at his home, was the third killing of Israelis in the Palestinian territory in as many weeks.
"Under our (security) agreement, the Israelis should have come to us immediately asking for security coordination" following the latest violent incidents, Nabil Shaath told Agence France Presse near the Palestinian town of Beit Jala, south of Jerusalem.
The Israeli army set up roadblocks near the scene of Friday's attack in Brosh settlement in the northern Jordan Valley as Israeli security forces searched for the perpetrators.
Shaath also criticized a unilateral Israeli operation that saw security forces surround a Palestinian town in the West Bank after an October 6 attack that injured a nine-year-old Jewish girl in the Psagot settlement.
"They (the army) almost reoccupied (the town of) Al-Bira, searching house by house without any attempt to ask the Palestinian police to help," Shaath said.
Referring to conflicting reports on whether the girl was stabbed or shot, Shaath said "all of this we hear from the press. They (Israelis) don't talk to our security."
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas condemned Israeli army "incursions" after the Psagot incident, insisting the Palestinian Authority should take responsibility for finding the culprits.
Abbas described coordination on security as functioning at "100 percent," in response to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding the Palestinian leadership responsible for the Psagot attack.
Shaath on Friday said cooperation was 100 percent "from our point of view, not from their point of view. We offer them 100 percent support and protection. They don't give us one percent (of their) information."
"When I speak to the Israelis and tell them, come and reoccupy the land and you take care of security, it scares the hell out of them," he said.
"So far the security is free. We pay for security, we pay for roads, we pay for everything. And they get 62 percent of the land... free."
The latest attacks have taken place in Area C, the part of the West Bank under full control of the Israeli army. Area C makes up more than 60 percent of the occupied West Bank.
Source: Agence France Presse
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