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| Israeli President Shimon Peres (R) and visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hold a joint press conference in Jerusalem, March 20, 2010. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu) |
Following his meeting with Fayyad, Ban told a joint news conference that the U.S. proposed proximity peace talks would be resumed soon.
"The indirect talks, proposed by the U.S., is a step for the final, direct talks," Ban said, insisting that talks "are the only way to resolve the conflict between the two sides."
"It should lead to establishing a Palestinian statehood on the lands Israel occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem," he added.
The Middle East peace talks stopped in December 2008 when Israel launched a military campaign in the Gaza Strip. The building of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) wants for a future state, undermined efforts to revive the talks.
Last week, the Israeli right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the building of 1,600 new homes in the occupied East Jerusalem, hindering a fresh U.S. proposal to revive the peace talks between the two sides by holding proximity talks on the borders of the future state.
Ban will visit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip again on Sunday, where thousands of houses remain in ruins as Israel kept its blockade in place. The top UN official is not going to see officials from Hamas movement, which seized control of the enclave by force in June 2007.
Before his arrival in Gaza on Sunday, the Palestinian campaign to end the blockade on Saturday urged Ban in a press release faxed to reporters "to take serious stance to end more than three-year Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip."
Meanwhile, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said a 16-year-old Palestinian villager died shortly after being shot by Israeli army forces during clashes with Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers in a village near the West Bank city of Nablus on Saturday afternoon.
A Palestinian doctor from Nablus governmental hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that Mohammed Qadous was brought to Nablus Hospital in critical condition and died later, adding another two villagers were also injured.
Mohammed was seriously injured in the afternoon during clashes erupted between residents of Iraq Burin village, near Nablus, and Jewish settlers who raided the village.
"The settlers called soldiers after villagers hurled rocks at them. The soldiers responded with tear gas and rubber bullets," said a Xinhua photographer.
The Palestinians are often scuffling with settlers who live in Jewish blocs built on the West Bank territories. The continuation of Israel's settlement activities, including building in East Jerusalem, complicates efforts to revive peace talks between the two sides.
Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians marched in Gaza Strip near Israeli fence, protesting a 300-meter-wide buffer zone Israel declared along its borders with the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave. The demonstration took place in Deir al-Balah town in central Gaza Strip.
Some Palestinian factions, especially the leftist groups, increased popular resistance against Israel as Islamic Hamas movement, which controls the enclave, maintains a fragile ceasefire with the Jewish state.
