News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Senior Palestinian Authority negotiator Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala) announced on Saturday evening that the PA would be suspending talks with Israel due to IDF counter-terrorism operations in Gaza.  Earlier in the day PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said the operations were "worse than the Holocaust," and senior Fatah official Hazam Abu Shanab called the fighting "a real massacre."

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Saturday that the PA’s decision to freeze talks with Israel "won’t influence in any way the decisions or operations Israel carries out to defend its citizens."  Abbas and other "moderate elements in the Palestinian Authority" knew that Israel would continue its counter-terrorist operations when talks began, she said.