Abbas Says He Does Not Want Escalation with Israel

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By Reuters October 6, 2015

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday he did not want the current violence in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank to escalate into a military confrontation with Israel.

“We tell them (the Israelis) that we do not want either military or security escalation,” Abbas said at a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization. “All our instructions to our (security) agencies, our factions and our youth have been that we do not want escalation.”

Violence has intensified in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, raising concerns of a wider escalation and a possible uprising, though it has not reached the level of past Israeli-Palestinian confrontations.

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