Special report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts

    ANKARA, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- The top Palestinian envoy in Turkey said on Friday that Israeli attacks were delaying peace process in the Middle East.

    Nabil Maarouf, the Palestinian ambassador to Turkey, made the remarks at a conference in the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) in Turkish capital Ankara.

    Maarouf defined the Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip as a "humanitarian attack, war crime and state terrorism," adding that Israel was fighting against the independence dream of every civilian Palestinian, not against Hamas.

    The developments in Gaza were fading the dream of a two-state solution, the ambassador said.

    Maarouf said that no progress had been made since 1994, when the Oslo agreement was signed, and the delay in ensuring peace caused several problems in the region.

    The Oslo Accords, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements or Declaration of Principles (DOP), was a milestone in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    The ambassador said that the settlements Israel established in Gaza and West Bank since 1994 were up by 38-folds, Israel built a wall and annexed 58 percent of Palestinian territories to its own territory, and raised its check-points over 600.

    Turkey had launched several initiatives to reach a compromise among regional countries in recent years, and hoped that those initiatives would build bridges among the Palestinians, Maarouf said.

    More than 700 Palestinians have been killed and around 3,000 others injured since the beginning of Israeli offensive against Gaza on Dec. 27, 2008.