RAMALLAH, Tuesday, November 7, 2023 (WAFA) – Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh received a telephone call from Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Tobias Billström, during which they discussed the latest developments in the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Shtayyeh affirmed that the priority is to put an immediate stop to the Israeli aggression on the Strip and bring in relief and medical aid to the injured.

He said that Israel’s continuation to cut off electricity, water, and relief and medical aid, and starve out the civilian population in Gaza is considered a war crime.

Shtayyeh refused to justify the war crimes and genocide committed by Israel as self-defense, stating that: “Israel is the occupying power against our people and land.”

The prime minister stressed that our people in the West Bank were not spared from the offensives of the Israeli army and colonists, noting that over 370 Palestinians were killed since the start of 2023, in addition to the continued illegal land appropriation for the benefit of colonial settlement expansion.

He said that the Israeli government’s announcement to deduct the money earmarked for the Gaza Strip from the tax funds to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA) is a political decision that aims at separating the West Bank from the Gaza Strip.

The prime minister stressed the importance of creating a political path to end the occupation and establish an independent Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, which he stressed would achieve peace and stability in the region as a whole.

T.R.