Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Abbas demands Israel halt raids ‘immediately’
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas urges Israel to stop its offensive on the Gaza Strip, blaming Jerusalem for the escalation in the area.
“Palestinian [Authority] President Mahmoud Abbas demanded Israel immediately stop its escalation and the raids on Gaza,” the Palestinian Ma’an news agency quotes a statement from Abbas’s office as saying.
Abbas also reportedly calls on the international community “to immediately intervene to halt this dangerous escalation which would lead the region to more destruction and instability.”
He adds that the Palestinian leadership is making “intensive and urgent calls” to Arab leaders to ask them to exert pressure on Israel in hopes of deescalating the situation.
