BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat on Thursday condemned Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 12 Palestinians in 12 hours.

"This exposes that Israel has an agenda for war but not for peace," Erekat said in a statement.

"We condemn in the strongest terms this new Israeli assassination which aims to initiate a bloody escalation. We hold the Israeli government fully responsible for the consequences that this new act of aggression would bring to the region," he added.

PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi also strongly denounced Israel's military escalation against the Palestinian people.

Ashrawi said in a statement that the military campaign was a "blatant provocation in violation of international and humanitarian law" and "a deliberate attempt to sabotage Palestinian efforts to achieve observer-state status in the United Nations."

She called on the EU, the Quartet and the international community to adopt "serious measures" to stop Israel's policy of extrajudicial executions, the killings of innocent civilians "and the continued oppression of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation."