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EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Saturday condemned the escalating violence between Israel and the Palestinians, urging all parties to exercise restraint and promote calm for the ongoing religious holidays.
Israeli-Palestinian tensions mounted after an Italian tourist was killed and five people were wounded in a car ramming in Tel Aviv on Friday following a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank that killed two Israeli sisters.
Police said they shot and killed the driver of the car and identified him as a 45-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel from the village of Kafr Qassem.
“Israel has the right to defend itself. At the same time, any response must be proportionate. The EU calls for an immediate end to the ongoing violence. Everything must be done to prevent the conflict from spreading,” Borrell said in a statement.
“We urge all parties to exercise maximum restraint, to avoid further escalation and promote calm for the ongoing religious holidays,” he said.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Judaism’s Passover and Christian Easter are all occurring this month.
[ Israel exchanges fire with Gaza militants after clashes in Al-Aqsa mosque ]
No groups claimed responsibility for either attack. But the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza praised both incidents as retaliation for Israeli raids earlier this week on the Al-Aqsa mosque – the third-holiest site in Islam.
On Tuesday, police arrested and beat hundreds of Palestinians there, who responded by hurling rocks and firecrackers at officers.
The attack came against the backdrop of heightened tensions after Israeli air strikes on Palestinian militant targets in both Lebanon and Gaza, as well as a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank that killed two people.
That followed days of violence and unrest in Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, the compound of the Al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was calling up all reserve forces in Israel’s border police “to confront the terror attacks”.– Agencies