RAMALLAH, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian official on Saturday called on the international community to list the far-right Israeli party Otzma Yehudit headed by Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir as a terror group.
Ben-Gvir's "party has a ... history of inciting the killing of Palestinians," said Hussein Al-Sheikh, secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, after a member of Ben-Gvir's party Friday night shot and killed a Palestinian in the village of Burqa near Ramallah.
Qusai Ma'tan, 19, was killed when a group of armed Israeli settlers stormed the Burqa village and clashed with dozens of its residents. Two Israeli settlers have been arrested and five others detained in connection with the killing, according to media reports.
Over half a million Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967. Disputes between the settlers and the Palestinians have often turned into violence. Palestine has accused the Israeli army and police of providing protection to Israeli settlers and covering up their practices against the Palestinians.
Since January, 26 people, most of them Israelis, have been killed in a series of attacks carried out by Palestinians, while 200 Palestinians, including children and women, have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers, according to official figures. ■
