MOSCOW, October 2. /TASS/. Moscow calls on Palestine and Israel to show restraint and to avoid unwinding a spiral of violence and further stoking of tensions, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a commentary posted on the ministry’s website on Friday, following a deterioration of the situation in the West Bank where on Thursday two Israeli settlers were killed when their car came under shelling.
"Moscow offers its sincere condolences to relatives of the dead," the ministry said. "We confirm our principled stance: violence against peaceful civilians is absolutely unacceptable. Those guilty in this barbarous crime should be found and brought to justice."
"We urge the Palestinians and Israelis to show restraint and not to whip up violence, doing everything so as to avoid a further escalation of tensions in the relations between Palestine and Israel," the ministry said.
On Thursday, the Henkin family were travelling in their car near a Palestine village on the outskirts of the city of Nablus when their car came under shelling. The husband and wife died on the spot and their four children were injured. In response Israel has bolstered its military presence in the West Bank and launched a search operation to find those guilty. The accident ended in clashes between residents of Palestinian villages and Israelis from neighbouring villages.
Overnight to Friday in a village located west to Ramallah, unidentified persons set ablaze a car belonging to Palestinians and also painted graffiti on the walls of a Palestinian home urging revenge for the Henkins’ deaths.