Abbas: Europe must press Israel for peace

STRASBOURG, France, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says the international community needs to press Israel to take a new approach to Middle Eastern conflicts.

Speaking Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Abbas called Israel's 22-day military actions against Palestinian militants in Gaza an "attack on the future of the Palestinian state" and said Jerusalem "is not above international and humanitarian law."

Abbas told MEPs the Israeli actions in Gaza were meant to drive a wedge between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, and were making the prospects of a lasting "two state" Middle Eastern peace plan more difficult to obtain.

Abbas also blasted continuing Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank, saying, "the Israeli settlements have not stopped at all, the Wall of Separation continues, as do the roadblocks, checkpoints and other barriers."

Abbas said the PA has accepted an Egyptian working proposal for reconciliation between his government, led by the Fatah faction, and Hamas, but warned of "regional forces that promote separation and oppose the Egyptian solution."