By Xinhua,
Ramallah : Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Wednesday said it fears a political crisis inside Israel will affect the behavior of the Israeli army operations into the Palestinian territories.
“We are afraid the crisis will lead to increasing detentions, shellings and incursions,” the Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio.
He added that “holding elections inside Israel means the blocking of peace process and the continuing of the invasions, the aggressions and the expansion of settlements.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faces increasing criticism from Israeli parties over receiving some 150,000 U.S. dollars from an American businessman before he became prime minister.
Olmert used to hold biweekly meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas since November when the United States mediated in resuming peace talks between the two sides.
Stressing it is “an Israeli internal affair,” Erekat said he is also worried about the fate of an Egyptian offer for a ceasefire in Gaza Strip “especially if election campaigns between the Israeli parties begin.”
Threatening to withdraw from Olmert’s fragile collation and pulling out the Labor Party, Israel’s powerful Defense Minister Ehud Barak urged Olmert to resign.
The Israeli elections will be held if Barak insists on withdrawing.