France denounces Netanyahu's Jerusalem vow

France accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Neyanyahu on Friday of prejudicing the outcome of the Middle East peace process by declaring that occupied Jerusalem would forever be Israel's undivided capital.

"The declaration made by the Israeli prime minister yesterday in Jerusalem prejudices the final status agreement," foreign ministry spokesman Frederic Desagneaux told reporters in Paris.

Desagneaux said the internationally-sponsored "Middle East road map" to peace called on both parties to negotiate an agreement on occupied Jerusalem.

On Thursday, at a ceremony marking Israel's occupation of Palestinian east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War, which Israel waged against its neighbours, Netanyahu said: "Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It has always been, will remain so forever and will never be divided."

Reacting to the speech, the French spokesman took the opportunity to restate Paris' position on the future status of occupied Jerusalem and to criticise Israel for allowing illegal Jewish settlers to build on occupied land.

"In France's eyes, Jerusalem should, within the framework of a negotiated peace deal, become the capital of two states," he said, adding that President Nicolas Sarkozy had told Israeli lawmakers this in a speech last year.

"Actions such as the destruction of Palestinian homes or the transformation of Arab districts risk provoking an escalation in violence. They are unacceptable and contrary to international law," Desagneaux said.

"In broad terms, France condemns the ongoing settlement, including in East Jerusalem. We reiterate the need for a freeze on colonisation activities, including those linked to natural population growth," he added.

The previous Israeli government said it might agree to give up sovereignty on some Palestinian neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem, but Netanyahu has ruled this out and has refused to endorse the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israeli forces captured the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Six Day War, which Tel Aviv launched against its neighbours.

Under international law, neither east nor west Jerusalem is considered Israel's capital. Tel Aviv is recognised as Israel's capital, pending a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians.

East Jerusalem is considered by the international community to be illegally occupied by Israel, in contravention of several binding UN Security Council Resolutions.

In these resolutions, the United Nations Security Council has also called for no measures to be taken to change the status of Jerusalem until a final settlement is reached between the sides.

Declaring Jerusalem as Israel's capital is an attempt to change this status, and is thus a violation of these Security Council resolutions.

The Palestinians slammed Netanyahu's remarks as undermining the principle of a two-state solution which has formed the bedrock of the peace process over the past two decades.

"East Jerusalem is occupied Palestinian just like all the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since June 4, 1967," president Mahmud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.

"Such declarations defy the idea of a two-state solution," he said, urging US President Barack Obama to intervene in order to halt "the Israeli policies and these declarations that destroy all efforts to reach a just and comprehensive peace in our region."

Ten wounded in West Bank protests

Ten Palestinians were wounded Friday when Israeli security forces opened fire on demonstrators protesting Israel's separation barrier in the occupied West Bank, medics said.

In the village of Nilin, five demonstrators were wounded, including one who was shot in the leg and another who was hit in the head by a teargas grenade.

In nearby Billin village, five others were wounded, most of them lightly, when Israeli border guards used rubber-coated bullets and teargas to disperse protesters who were throwing balloons filled with sewage water at them.

A military spokesman said security forces "used anti-riot equipment to disperse 400 demonstrators who hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails" at the two sites.

Activists gather regularly at Bilin and Nilin, near the Palestinian West Bank city of Ramallah, to protest against Israel's West Bank separation barrier.

Israel says the projected 723 kilometres (454 miles) of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire are needed for security. The Palestinians view it as a land grab that undermines their future independent state.

To date, Israel has built 57 percent of the projected barrier, most of it inside the occupied West Bank.

Building the barrier - dubbed by critics as 'Apartheid Wall' - on occupied land is illegal under international law.

Israel kills two Palestinian in Gaza Strip

Two Palestinian activists were killed early Friday on the edge of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said.

"Earlier this morning, two armed gunmen were identified approaching the Gaza Strip security fence north of the Kerem Shalom Crossing in an attempt to plant explosive devices," the military said in a statement.

An army force "crossed the fence and fired at the gunmen, who also began firing. During the exchange of fire, the gunmen were killed, and on their bodies the forces uncovered an explosive device, two AK-47 rifles, hand grenades and military vests," the statement said.

Gaza medics identified the two as Yassin Jasser and Abdelmajid Saleh, both aged 18.

Israel's war on Gaza killed nearly 1,400 Palestinians, mainly civilians, and wounded 5,450 others.

Among the dead were at least 437 children, 110 women, 123 elderly men, 14 medics and four journalists.

The wounded include 1,890 children and 200 people in serious condition.

The war also left tens of thousands of houses destroyed, while their residents remained homeless.

Israel, which wants to crush any Palestinian liberation movement, responded to Hamas's win in the elections with sanctions, and almost completely blockaded the impoverished coastal strip after Hamas seized power in 2007, although a ‘lighter’ siege had already existed before.

Human rights groups, both international and Israeli, slammed Israel’s siege of Gaza, branding it “collective punishment.�

A group of international lawyers and human rights activists had also accused Israel of committing “genocide� through its crippling blockade of the Strip.

Gaza is still considered under Israeli occupation as Israel controls air, sea and land access to the Strip.

The Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza's sole border crossing that bypasses Israel, rarely opens as Egypt is under immense US and Israeli pressure to keep the crossing shut.

Fatah has little administrative say in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and has no power in Arab east Jerusalem, both of which were illegally occupied by Israel in 1967.

Israel also currently occupies the Lebanese Shabaa Farms and the Syrian Golan Heights.