By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Austria's foreign minister on Monday warned of renewed bloodshed between Israel and the Palestinians.
"The entire region is again on the cusp of a renewed escalation of violence," Ursula Plassnik said in a statement.
The firing of rockets into Israel by Palestinian extremists, the failure of efforts to release kidnapped Israeli soldiers and the imprisonment of Palestinian politicians have created the breeding ground for a new wave of violence, Plassnik said.
Plassnik added that it was necessary to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' efforts to form a new government, saying that "violence is never the solution and no replacement for a political process."