Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he would not renew the mandate for the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), accusing it of bias.

"We will not allow the continued presence of an international force that acts against us," Netanyahu said in a tweet.

Netanyahu did not provide any further comment on the situation. According to Israeli media, TIPH's mandate will formally end on Thursday, if it is not renewed. Last month, Israeli newspaper Haaretz said a confidential TIPH report showed Israel "regularly breaks international law in Hebron."

Palestinians officials have called for the international community to pressure Israel into remaining a member of the observer mission, with President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas saying Netanyahu's decision has created "an atmosphere of tension and chaos in the region."

A Palestinian man walks in the old city of Hebron

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'Sense of security'

TIPH was established in in the 1990s in response to deadly violence against Palestinians. In 1994, an American-born Israeli opened fire on a crowd of Palestinian worshipers, killing 29 of them. The perpetrator was a member of an ultranationalist political party.

Three years later, TIPH was created to assist in "monitoring and reporting efforts to maintain normal life in the city of Hebron, thus creating a sense of security among the Palestinians in Hebron."

But over the past decade, Israeli officials have accused some of the mission's members of failing to exercise neutrality. The unarmed, civilian mission comprises 64 observers. Its member countries are Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey, along with Israeli and Palestinian authorities.

Hebron remains a tense city, with roughly 600 Israeli settlers living under heavy guard in a city that is home to some 200,000 Palestinians.

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A history of the Middle East peace process UN Security Council Resolution 242, 1967 United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, passed on November 22, 1967, called for the exchange of land for peace. Since then, many of the attempts to establish peace in the region have referred to 242. The resolution was written in accordance with Chapter VI of the UN Charter, under which resolutions are recommendations, not orders.

A history of the Middle East peace process Camp David Accords, 1978 A coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, fought Israel in the Yom Kippur or October War in October 1973. The conflict eventually led to the secret peace talks that yielded two agreements after 12 days. This picture from March 26, 1979, shows Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, his US counterpart Jimmy Carter and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin after signing the accords in Washington.

A history of the Middle East peace process The Madrid Conference, 1991 The US and the former Soviet Union came together to organize a conference in the Spanish capital city of Madrid. The discussions involved Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestinians — not from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) — who met with Israeli negotiators for the first time. While the conference achieved little, it did create the framework for later, more productive talks.

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A history of the Middle East peace process Trump's peace plan backfires, 2020 US President Donald Trump presented a peace plan that freezes Israeli settlement construction but retains Israeli control over most of the illegal settlements it has already built. The plan would double Palestinian-controlled territory, but asks Palestine to cross a red line and accept the previously constructed West Bank settlements as Israeli territory. Palestine rejected the plan outright. Author: Aasim Saleem



ls/jm (AFP, Reuters, dpa)