Abbas: Palestinians to halt agreements with Israel Published duration 26 July 2019

image copyright EPA image caption The move comes amid heightened tensions between Israel and the Palestinians

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says the Palestinians will no longer abide by previous agreements made with Israel.

Agreements signed over the past 25 years cover many spheres of activity, including security co-operation.

Israel has not yet responded to the move.

Mr Abbas said a committee would be formed to work out how to implement the decision.

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have heightened in recent days after the demolition of the buildings in Wadi Hummus (an area of Sur Baher), which Israel's High Court said had been built too close to its West Bank barrier.

media caption Israel pulls down a cluster of Palestinian homes

There was an international outcry over Israel's actions, which left 17 people homeless.

Mr Abbas blamed Israel for the latest step, accusing it of reneging on agreements first.

"In light of the insistence of the occupation authority [Israel] to deny all the signed agreements and their obligations, we announce the decision of the leadership to stop working in accordance with the agreements signed with the Israeli side," he was quoted by the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, as saying.

It is unclear what the decision will mean in practice or whether it extends to the Palestinians' recognition of Israel itself, a lynchpin of the 1993 Oslo peace accords, which lay the foundations for Palestinian self-rule in the occupied territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Mr Abbas has previously threatened to annul past agreements with Israel but this has never been implemented.