‘Israelis blame Palestinians for fighting back’

The current situation which has seen increasing violence in Gaza and Israel was entirely started by Israel, the foreign affairs adviser to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said.

It was not about telling militants to stop firing rockets, but in the beginning “stopping Israeli aggression,” Dr Nabil Shaath told BBC World News on Thursday.

Weeks of Israeli-Palestinian tension in East Jerusalem led to clashes at a holy site revered by both Muslims and Jews.

The escalating violence has seen exchanges of Palestinian rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes.

Israel increased its attacks on Gaza and Palestinian militants continued to fire rockets into Israel on Friday.

Some 119 people have been killed in Gaza and eight have died in Israel since the fighting began five days ago.