Israeli settlers killed as peace talks set to begin in Washington

Palestinian, Israeli and other world leaders are meeting with President Obama in Washington ahead of tomorrow’s Middle East talks, but a deadly attack on West Bank settlers cast a heavy shadow on those talks. FSRN’s Ghassan Bannoura has the story.

TRANSCRIPT:

Four Israeli settlers were killed on Tuesday night while in their car on settler road number 60 which connects southern West Bank settlements with Jerusalem. The armed wing of Hamas, Al Qassan brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack. One of the women was believed to be pregnant, according to the Israeli online Haaretz.

The attack came hours before Palestinian and Israeli delegations start bilateral meetings with President Obama in Washington, DC. Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu, meeting Tuesday night with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, said the murderers would be found and punished. 

Israeli Foreign Affairs deputy spokesperson Andy David spoke to FSRN about the impact of the killings on this week's peace talks.

ANDY DAVID: It certainly has an effect on the atmosphere, it does not make the begging of those talks start in a good atmosphere because it buts some kind of a shadow over it but I hope that both delegations can overcome that and continue with serious desiccations.

In retaliation Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers and uprooted trees in several West Bank areas and the Israeli army invaded Palestinian villages near the attack.  The settlers also announced the resumption of settlement construction in all West Bank settlements. From Washington, Netanyahu urged settlers to follow the rule of law.

Earlier this year, Israel announced a 10-month-long freeze of construction in West Bank settlements to boost efforts to resume peace talks. The freeze ends on September 26th. Palestinians warned that they would pull out of the new talks if Israelis resume settlement building in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation organization or PLO headed by President Mahmoud Abbas quickly condemned the killings. Palestinian security forces in the West Bank also arrested 250 Hamas members in response to the attack. Husam Zmlut is a PLO spokesperson.

HUSAM ZMLUT: The official position of the PLO is that this attack is condemned not only because we reject the use of violence but also because those who  perpetuated this attack have timed it in a way that will harm the national interest of the Palestinians in a time when we were accumulating an international momentum towards resolving our cause and our conflict.

Palestinian leftist groups also protested the new round of direct talks by organizing rallies all over the West Bank and Gaza. The Tuesday attack is not the first of its kind on settler road 60. In June, an Israeli soldier was killed and two others injured in a drive by shooting; while in May, two Israelis were wounded in another shooting on the same road. Since May of this year, Israeli settlers and military attacks left 14 Palestinians killed.

Ghassan Bannoura, FSRN, Bethlehem.