Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Saturday condemned an attack during which Israeli settlers shot a Palestinian and injured four others in occupied East Jerusalem.
Five relatives, three of them over 60 years old, were hospitalized after right-wing Israelis attacked the Salah family, shooting one, in a bid to take over their home in the Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa on Friday.
"This terrorist settler attack on the lives and property of Palestinian citizens demonstrates the necessity of providing immediate international protection for our people in Jerusalem," Fayyad said, speaking alongside US Consul General Daniel Rubenstein and other American officials at an unrelated event near Ramallah.
He urged the international community to intervene and secure the safety of Palestinians throughout the occupied territories "until the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."
Howard Sumka, director of the US Agency for International Development, and Ziad Asali, president of the American Task Force on Palestine, joined Rubenstein and the prime minister at a ceremony inaugurating a project set to repair pavement, retaining walls and street lights in the Ramallah-area village of Beit Ora.
"The task of building Palestinian state institutions and infrastructure requires greater unity and concerted efforts on the part of all of our people both at home and in the Diaspora," Fayyad added, reiterating his determination to rebuild the Gaza Strip.
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