Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the UN to deploy patrols across the West Bank to monitor the activities of Israeli settlers and security forces throughout the territory, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Monday.
Shtayyeh's request came after an Israeli driver collided with a Palestinian car parked by the side of the road on Route 60 in the northern West Bank, killing brothers Mohammad and Muhannad Muteir.
The Palestinian premier labeled the incident a "deliberate car-ramming attack", whereas Israel Police traffic accident investigators determined that the Israeli driver, who was lightly injured in the crash, most probably hit the brothers by accident as they were apparently parked on the side of the road in a poorly lit area to fix a fault in their vehicle.
“In view of the shedding of Palestinian blood, the extrajudicial executions on the roads, and the escalation of terrorism by the occupation soldiers and settlers, the latest of which was the deliberate car-ramming attack against the two brothers, Mohammad and Muhannad Mtair, we call on the United Nations teams stationed in Palestine to deploy monitors on the roads and in the areas targeted by settlers,” Shtayyeh was quoted by WAFA as saying at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah.
“The UN has more than 400 vehicles and more than 1,000 staff that can be trained as UN monitors to observe and document the actions of the army and settlers for the purpose of prosecution.”
Violence in the West Bank has surged in recent months after Israel stepped up counterterrorism raids into the territory following a spate of deadly Palestinian attacks that claimed the lives of dozens of Israelis.
According to WAFA, Shtayyeh also condemned Israel for deporting a Palestinian-French lawyer after stripping him of his Jerusalem residency for his alleged involvement in terrorist activity.
Salah Hamouri, 37, was held without charge for over nine months in administrative detention, a procedure allowing Israel to hold detainees without trial and without revealing sensitive intelligence out of national security concerns.
Hamouri — who was previously jailed and later released for a plot to assassinate a prominent rabbi — is suspected to be active in the Marxist-Leninist terror group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and pose a threat to Israel's national security.
“We condemn the deportation of the Jerusalem citizen Salah Hammouri to France, after the occupation authorities arrested him administratively, withdrew his Jerusalem residency papers, and deprived him of his natural right to reside in his hometown,” Shtayyeh said, according to WAFA.
“The case of the detainee Hammouri summarizes a number of continuous (Israeli) violations against Jerusalem residents with the aim of emptying the city of its indigenous population through a series of laws and racist policies targeting the Palestinian presence in the holy city."
Shtayyeh also rejected Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's offer for self-rule for the Palestinians with security to remain in Israel's hands.
“The statements made by Benjamin Netanyahu affect the right of our people to establish their independent state,” said Shtayyeh.
“This right was achieved after great sacrifices and was endorsed by international laws, and it will not be dropped by a statement or a decision from any Israeli official. Our people will not cease their legitimate struggle before they win their legitimate rights and establish their independent state on the June 4, 1967, lines with Jerusalem as its capital.”