'An escalation is against the Palestinian civilian interest'

Ido Zelkovitz, an Israeli professor at Haifa University for Middle Eastern history and conflict management told MEE that the security coordinators between Israeli forces and the Palestinian Authority are doing everything in their power to prevent further escalation.

"An escalation from what is happening now is against the [Palestinian] civilian interest, and [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] is working against any more escalations because it will cause a huge damage to the Palestinian interest to create a Palestinian state. But if there is a larger escalation from now within Area A, it could lead to an armed escalation."

On the call for Israeli civilians to carry arms:

"I think that Israeli civilians should not carry arms, Israel has one of the strongest armies in the world and a very professional police force that can take every challenge...civilians carrying weapons in the public sphere can lead us to a huge problem, first they are not trained like our professionals are and they do not have the judgement on when and where to use arms. Weapons in the public sphere we will just lead to more tragedies"