A raid inside the Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank by Israeli military forces early Monday has left at least three Palestinians dead, more than a dozen wounded, and put another serious dent in peace talks that only recently began.
According to Al-Jazeera:
Medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 15 others were wounded, six of them seriously, during clashes between the Israeli forces and Palestinians that erupted after the dawn raid on Monday.
An Israeli police spokeswoman told AFP news agency that the officers were on a raid to catch a "terror suspect" when more than 1,500 Palestinians poured into the streets and attacked them with firebombs and rocks.
She said Israeli forces used riot-control munitions - a term that usually refers to rubber bullets and tear gas.
It was not clear if the Israelis made any arrests.
Following the incident a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority said a planned meeting on Monday between the PA and Israeli negotiators would be cancelled.
According to Palestinian medical officials, the dead included Rubeen Abed Fares, 30, and Yunis Jahjouh, 22, both shot in the chest, and Jihad Aslan, 20, who died of brain damage.
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"What happened today in Qalandiya shows the real intentions of the Israeli government," Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told Agence France-Presse in the wake of the deadly raid.
"The meeting that was to take place in Jericho ... today was cancelled because of the Israeli crime committed in Qalandiya today," he said.
From AFP:
The talks 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.
"The daily killings and ongoing settlement activity are all Israeli messages that aim to destroy the peace process," Abu Rudeina said.
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