PALESTINIAN president Mahmoud Abbas said today the Israeli military assault on Lebanon and the Palestinian territories was an "unsustainable catastrophe" as he began an official visit in the Algeria capital Algiers.
"The raids on Lebanon and Palestine go hand in hand," he said, adding that the Gaza Strip has been "shaken every day for nearly a month" by Israeli strikes.
"We will accept nothing short of an independent Palestinian state with the 1967 borders and Al Qods Al Esharif (Jerusalem) as its capital, a fair and consensual settlement of the refugee question and of the question of the settlements we consider illegal," Mr Abbas said.
The Palestinian president is on a tour of several Arab states during which he will meet King Abdullah of Jordan, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said today.
Twenty-four Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed in the Gaza strip today, one of the bloodiest days since Israeli launched its offensive almost a month ago following the kidnap of an Israeli soldier.
Meanwhile, some 400 people turned out in Algiers to protest against Israel's offensive in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. The meeting in a sports hall was called by several political parties.