Prime Minister Salam Fayyad condemned Monday's shooting incident south of Hebron that left one Israeli police officer dead and two others injured.

The police had been operating in Hebron and the nearby illegal settlements and were reportedly en route to Beersheba when they were ambushed by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, who said in a statement that the attack came as retribution for the shooting deaths of nine Turkish nationals aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza.

Fayyad said the incident was "against the national Palestinian interest" and warned that such acts could bring back a "cycle of violence" that would only serve the "perpetuation of the Israeli settlement scheme."

He said the Palestinian Authority would continue to work to prevent such incidents in the future, and encouraged Palestinians to unite under the banner of peaceful popular resistance against settlements, land confiscations and the "terrorist acts of settlers."

The latter approach, Fayyad added, "has the full support of the PA, and has gained international backing on a large scale."