LATEST: Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon — No State for Palestine

UPDATE 1100 GMT:

Israeli riot police have forcibly dispersed protests in East Jerusalem’s Ras al-Amud and Wadi al-Joz neighborhoods.

The demonstrations were held in commemoration of Baha Samir Bader, killed by Israeli forces on Thursday, whose funeral was held on the outskirts of Ramallah in the West Bank earlier Friday.

After a Hamas call for protests throughout the West Bank and Gaza against Israel’s security restrictions at the Temple Mount/al-Aqsa Mosque, Palestinian Authority forces have broken up Hamas demonstrations in Nablus and Bethlehem.

A protest is currently underway outside the al-Hussein Mosque in Hebron. Reports indicate that at least 15 protesters were arrested in Nablus, while a Hamas spokesperson has been arrested in Ramallah.

A 13-year-old Palestinian, Baha Samir Bader, was killed by Israeli security forces during protests on Thursday in the West Bank.

Samir Bader is the first person slain in the area since Israeli forces shot Amer Abu Aisha and Marwan Qawame, the alleged abductors and killers of three Israeli teenagers this summer, on September 23.

Thursday’s confrontation began after an Israeli military vehicle malfunctioned and stopped in Beit Liqia near Ramallah. Israeli authorities said troops fired with live ammunition after stones and Molotov cocktails were thrown by protesters at the vehicle.

Bader’s death and funeral are likely to fuel additional demonstrations, which have also been driven by this summer’s 50-day war between Israel and Gaza, after Friday Prayers.

Police are restricting access to Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday. Only Muslim women and children, as well as Muslim male worshippers over the age of 50 with Israeli citizenship, will be allowed to enter.

Several incidents were also reported on Thursday night in East Jerusalem’s predominantly-Arab neighborhoods. Israeli officials said Molotov cocktails were thrown at police cars and a synagogue, and a Jewish man was attacked by masked Palestinians.

(Featured Photo: Protester places Palestinian flag at the Israeli barrier fence in the West Bank village of Rafat near Ramallah — Reuters)

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon: No State for Palestine

In a series of media interviews, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has said that Palestinians will get autonomy but will not have a recognized State in negotiations with Israel.

“It’s time to free ourselves from the concept that everything leads to a framework that is called a state..,.I don’t care….It would basically be autonomy,” Ya’alon said.

Ya’alon also used the interviews to criticize both the Gazan leadership of Hamas and the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

The Defense Minister said that the refusal of an invitation to Hamas to attend last week’s international conference on Gazan reconstruction was another sign of the group’s losses after this summer’s war with Israel. He repeated that Hamas will not be allowed to replenish its stockpile of rockets which could be fired against Israel, and that humanitarian aid convoys will only be allowed to enter Gaza with oversight from both Israel and the international community.

Ya’alon then poured cold water on the prospect of renewed “peace” talks with the Palestinian Authority. He said Mahmoud Abbas has never committed himself to ending conflict and has not given up his hopes of inundating Israel with Palestinian refugees.

The Minister used Gaza to fire a shot at his critics within the Israeli Cabinet, refuting their assertion during the war that Israel should reoccupy the territory. He said that maintain the occupation would cost up to 10 billion shekels ($2.7 billion) annually.