Mohammad Shtayyeh, the Palestinian Authority (PA) cabinet leader, said on Sunday that Israel does not respect the signed agreements between the parties in treating all areas of Judea and Samaria as Area C (i.e. an area under Israeli security and civilian control).
In the wake of this, Shtayyeh declared that the PA would henceforth treat all areas of Judea and Samaria as Area A (i.e. an area under PA security and civilian control).
Shtayyeh’s statements were made at a meeting in his office in Ramallah with members of the committee to protect the Wadi al-Hummus neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, where Israeli authorities recently demolished illegally constructed homes near the separation fence.
Shtayyeh called the demolition of homes in Wadi al-Hummus "an unspeakable heinous crime through which the occupation seeks to empty the city of Al-Quds from its (Arab) residents under the Al-Quds 2020 plan which is based on a goal that the number of Palestinians in the city should not exceed 19 percent of the population."
The official PA news agency Wafa said that Shtayyeh was discussing with the committee members the legal ways in which they would bring Israel to justice for the "crime" it had committed in demolishing the homes. The cabinet leader stressed that the PA government would provide the necessary support to strengthen the resilience of the residents.
The PA accused Israel of carrying out a massacre following the home demolitions, and called on the international community “to intervene immediately and bring an end to Israeli aggression.”
The move was condemned by the European Union, which said the demolitions undermine the “viability of the two-state solution”.
Britain and Germany added their voices to the condemnation of Israel, saying the destruction was "particularly egregious".
There was also an attempt to condemn Israel at the UN Security Council over the demolitions, but the US blocked the move.