Quraya calls for calm to end violence
During his visit to Britain, Palestinian premier Ahmad Quraya has called for calm to bring strife between Israelis and Palestinians to an end.
Speaking in London on Monday a day after a bloody Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip that killed 14 Palestinians, Quraya said: “No doubt that the aggression and the arrogance of power that the Israelis are using against the Palestinian people will keep the circle of violence, despite all our efforts.”
“The Palestinian side should stop all kinds of violence; the Israeli side should stop all kinds of violence. This is in the roadmap,” Quraya told a press conference, referring to a plan for peace in the Middle East sponsored by the European Union, United States, United Nations and Russia.
“Therefore I think we need calm. Both sides when they will sit together, to study how to do it, I think they will find the way.”
Quraya made his remarks after talks with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. He was to meet later on Monday with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Nine Palestinian Hamas fighters and three boys were among those killed on Sunday when the Israeli army raided refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian boy was also killed on Tuesday when the Israeli army opened fire near a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip