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by Our Foreign Desk
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon called for calm on a surprise visit to Jerusalem yesterday.
Ahead of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Mr Ban told Palestinians that he sympathised with their plight: “I know your hopes for peace have been dashed countless times,” he said. “You are angry at the continued occupation and expansion of settlements.
“I am not asking you to be passive, but you must put down the weapons of despair.”
Mr Ban added that he understood Israeli security fears, “but walls, checkpoints, harsh responses by the security forces and house demolitions cannot sustain the peace and safety that you need and must have.”
Meanwhile, Israeli forces demolished the West Bank family home of Maher Hashlamoun, who killed an Israeli woman last year before being shot dead by police.
His widow said soldiers forced residents out of their three-storey building in Hebron and demolished the third-floor flat where her family lived.
Troops also arrested top Hamas official Hassan Yousef in the West Bank, claiming that he had been “actively instigating and inciting terrorism” by encouraging attacks against Israelis.
Two Palestinians were shot dead by police after allegedly attacking Israelis in the West Bank.
An Israeli man was run down and killed by a lorry after he attacked passing Palestinian vehicles with a stick in response to demonstrators throwing stones at his car.
The lorry driver later turned himself in to police, saying that he hit the Israeli by accident while trying to swerve out of the way.
