Abbas: We don't want a military confrontation with Israel
Oct. 6, 2015 4:16 P.M. (Updated: Oct. 6, 2015 5:38 P.M.)
http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768029

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- The Palestinian leadership said Tuesday that it wants to
find a political solution to the conflict using“peaceful means and nothing
else" as tensions rise across the occupied West Bank and EastJerusalem
following a string of killings by Israeli forces and Palestinians.

Speaking to members of the PLO's Executive Committee, Abbas said that Israel
must stop settlement expansions and come to the negotiating table.

Israel must also fulfill its promise to release the last group of
Palestinian detainees who were jailed before the Oslo Accords.

“We will then be ready to negotiate and to discuss agreements which have
been missed or breached by Israel since Oslo,” he said.

The Palestinians have complied with previous accords with Israel, he added,“but
we can’t continue to comply with them alone.”

"If Israel doesn’t want these agreements, we shouldn’t implement them as
well. However, we are not seeking a military confrontation and we have given
clear instructions to our security services, our young people and our crowds
that we don’t want any escalation, but we want to protect ourselves.”

The PLO also said it "salutes the masses of Palestinians whom confronting
the occupation and its continuing aggression in Jerusalem and all over the
rest of the Occupied State of Palestine," a statement said, offering
condolences to the families of Palestinians killed in recent clashes.

The comments from Abbas come a week after a speech at the United Nations
General Assembly, where the president said that the Palestinian Authority
will not remain committed to agreements with Israel, referring to the Oslo
Accords of 1993, while violations take place on a daily basis.

While many understood the president's speech to be groundbreaking, no clear
changes have been made in regards to security cooperation between the
Palestinian Authority and Israel in occupied Palestinian territory.

The PA -- set up as an interim government through the Oslo Accords -- has
security and administrative control over around 18 percent of the West Bank,
while Israel completely controls 60 percent of the territory, referred to as
Area C.

Nearly two decades later, Israeli forces regularly enter Area A and work in
coordination with the PA for security activity across the rest of the
territory.