A Third Intifada?

• 10.06.2015, 16:17
•  Near East,  World

The clashes between Israelis and Palestinians are really becoming quite serious, causing deaths of young people. Three Palestinians and four Israelis have reportedly been killed during a confrontation with Israeli forces on Sunday and Monday. In East Jerusalem, Palestinian youths tried to block a junction in the Shuafat neighborhood, and threw stones at Border Police and police forces, The Times of Israel reports. To avoid further escalation of the situation and more deaths Israel and the Palestinian Authority have been communicating in the past 24 hours in an attempt to calm violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

"We are witnessing the start of a third intifada, and Israel is not doing enough to rein in violence. The number of gunfire victims hospitalized today was out of the ordinary; it’s not clear to us if there have been new rules introduced on opening fire. This certainly won’t de-escalate the situation," a PA official said.

The tensions between Israelis and Palestinians started to become even tenser during the News Year of Israelis, when clashes at the Temple Mount started. This was followed by the declaration of Assad that he is going to annul all the agreements with Israel. At the 70^th session of the Un General Assembly, Abbas said on this occasion:

"We therefore declare that we cannot continue to be bound by these agreements and that Israel must assume all of its responsibilities as an occupying Power, because the status quo cannot continue and the decisions of the Palestinian Central Council last March are specific and binding." However, despite this announcement Abbas ordered his security chiefs to urgently deal with the West Bank protests.

This order shows that despite the declarations of Abbas, both sides understand that without mutual coordination of the situation both sides will lose. It will not be a win-lose game, but a lose-lose one. If one of the sides really tries to act unilaterally without taking care of the existing agreements, everything will turn into a real chaos, a way out of which will be difficult to find.