News / Palestine

Abbas to Putin: Israeli-occupied West Bank poised for ‘explosion’

Thursday, 30 December 2021 7:30 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 30 December 2021 7:35 PM ]

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israeli raids and other acts of aggression have put the occupied West Bank on the brink of an “explosion.”

Abbas told the Russian president during a telephone conversation on Thursday that Israeli settlements, land confiscation, home demolitions and "settler terrorism" are becoming a casus belli for a new revolt in the West Bank, the official Wafa news agency reported.

“The continuation of these Israeli measures will lead to an explosion of the situation,” the Palestinian Authority head added.

He also rejected “economic and security steps" offered by Israeli leaders, saying they are not "a substitute for the political track."

The Palestinian leadership will have to take “key decisions” at an important session of the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) expected to be held in the coming months, he said without elaboration.

The remarks came following Abbas' rare visit to Israel on Tuesday for talks with Israeli minister of military affairs Benny Gantz that the Israelis said focused on “security and civil matters”.

Abbas said in the absence of a political track, the Israeli regime continues to stifle the Palestinian economy and deduct from tax revenues.

Russia is a member of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators, along with the UN, the US and European Union.

The Palestinian Authority president said Israel’s endless settlement expansion, its confiscation of Palestinian lands, and its demolition of Palestinian homes and “settler terrorism” are creating an undercurrent of rage and insurrection among the Palestinians.

Israeli bulldozer razes another Palestinian home in al-Quds

The Israeli municipality of al-Quds demolishes a Palestinian-owned house in the occupied city, leaving another Palestinian family homeless.

According to figures by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, during the course of the first 10 months of 2021, Israeli settlers carried out 410 attacks against Palestinians, compared to 358 in the whole of 2020.

Israel uses settler violence as ‘strategy’ to expel Palestinians from West Bank: NGO

An Israeli right group says Tel Aviv uses settler violence as a strategy to drive Palestinians from their own land in the occupied West Bank.

The meeting with Gantz at his home was the first by Abbas since 2010. Months earlier, Gantz visited Abbas in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which rules over the West Bank.