On Sunday evening, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the United States to pressure Israel to stop its unilateral measures against the Palestinians.

On the other hand, Israel deployed additional forces in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and began implementing "retaliatory" decisions against the Palestinians in response to the two recent operations in occupied Jerusalem.

As US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken prepares to visit the Palestinian territories and Israel, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on the Palestinians and Israelis to stop the escalation and avoid armed confrontation.

The Palestinian presidency said - in a statement - that Abbas briefed the director of the US General Intelligence Service, William Burns, on the seriousness of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, and the importance of urgent intervention to pressure the Israeli occupation government to stop its unilateral measures, and to abide by the signed agreements.

Abbas stressed the necessity of restoring the political horizon on the basis of international legitimacy, in order to achieve security and stability for all in the region, and for the Palestinian people to achieve their freedom and independence in their state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders.

The Palestinian-Israeli negotiations have stalled since 2014, as a result of Tel Aviv's disavowal of the principle of the two-state solution, its refusal to stop settlement construction in the West Bank, and to release a batch of former detainees.

Yesterday, Sunday, two Palestinians were killed, one of whom was shot by a security guard of an Israeli settlement in Qalqilya, and the other succumbed to his injury by Israeli army bullets during their raid on the Jenin refugee camp last Thursday.

The Palestinian territories have witnessed an escalation in tension since the killing of 9 Palestinians in a military operation by the Israeli army in the Jenin refugee camp last Thursday, followed by an armed attack by a Palestinian youth in occupied Jerusalem, which left 7 dead and several injured.

A 13-year-old Palestinian boy also carried out an attack in East Jerusalem on Saturday, injuring two people.


Attacks and arrests

In a related context, a group of settlers assaulted Palestinian citizens in the village of Jalud, south of Nablus, in the West Bank.

Eyewitnesses stated that the settlers attacked houses in the village and burned at least one vehicle, and another group attacked Palestinian vehicles with stones at the entrance to the village.

On Sunday evening, the Israeli occupation forces arrested 9 Palestinians - including a child - from the towns of Beit Hanina and Silwan in Jerusalem.

The Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs stated in a statement that the Israeli police arrested 8 young men from the town of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem.

The Israeli police also arrested a 16-year-old boy in the town of Silwan, adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to an eyewitness.

In the same context, clashes broke out between Israeli forces and Palestinian youths in the town of Jabal Mukaber, south of Jerusalem, during which tear gas and bullets were fired in the air, according to eyewitnesses.


retaliatory actions

Yesterday, Sunday, the Israeli occupation government began implementing "retaliatory" decisions against the Palestinians, in response to the two recent operations in occupied Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also decided to reinforce the Israeli police with army companies, to assist them in Jerusalem and areas near the line of contact, and to expand the arming of settlers.

The Israeli army sent military reinforcements to the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, to support the forces deployed there, according to the Israeli government.

Netanyahu said that the retaliatory measures include confiscating the right to housing, residence and citizenship for the families of the perpetrators.

This came during a cabinet meeting, hours after the Israeli mini-ministerial staff took a series of retaliatory decisions against the Palestinians, which included closing the house of the perpetrator of the Jerusalem operation, martyr Khairy Alqam.

On Sunday, the occupation bulldozers demolished the house of the Ratib Shuqairat family in Jabal al-Mukaber in occupied Jerusalem, under the pretext of not having a permit.

Simultaneously, extremist settlers burned a house and vehicles belonging to Palestinians in the village of Turmusaya near Ramallah in the West Bank.


Pictures of Operation Jerusalem

In turn, the Israeli Channel 13 published a video clip showing the first moments of the operation carried out by Khairi Alqam in the "Nabi Jacob" settlement neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem.

The pictures showed that the perpetrator shot a passerby and targeted another person who was riding a motorcycle.

Israeli security estimates indicated that the perpetrator of the attack may have received high training in the use of weapons, which resulted in 7 deaths and 5 injuries.

Lavrov's invitation

Internationally, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called - yesterday, Sunday - the Palestinians and the Israelis to stop the escalation and avoid the outbreak of armed confrontation.

This came in telephone conversations held by Lavrov with his Palestinian counterparts, Riyad Al-Maliki and Israeli Eli Cohen.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Lavrov confirmed that Moscow is deeply concerned about the new wave of violence between Palestine and Israel, which threatens to ignite a large-scale armed confrontation that leads to casualties and destruction.

The statement added that Lavrov called on the Israeli and Palestinian partners to assume maximum responsibility, and to refrain from any action that could lead to a further deterioration of the situation.

Lavrov expressed his condolences to his Palestinian and Israeli counterparts for the victims of the recent tension.


blinkin tour

For his part, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived Sunday in Cairo, in the context of a tour that includes the Palestinian territories and Israel.

Blinken is expected to discuss during this tour the escalation in the Palestinian territories, easing tensions, preserving the historical situation in occupied Jerusalem, the two-state solution and other files.

Washington condemned the Jerusalem operation, in which Israelis were killed, and affirmed its commitment to Israel's security. However, US officials indicated the need to reduce escalation.