Palestinian president seeks UN probe into Israeli crimes

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Sunday asked the UN to form an international fact-finding committee to investigate what he described as ongoing Israeli violations against the Palestinians.

Abbas's comments came after his meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah with Robert Serry, the UN special envoy on the Middle East peace process, Xinhua reported.

His request was officially handed to Serry in a letter that will be delivered to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

After the meeting, Abbas told reporters that he has requested the international committee to probe "the Israeli terrorist crimes" against the Palestinian people including the crime of burning a Palestinian youth alive in Jerusalem.

Palestine accused three Israeli suspects of kidnapping and killing a 17-year-old Palestinian youth in east Jerusalem July 2.

The boy was killed days after the Israeli army found the dead bodies of three missing teenagers near Hebron in the West Bank.

Palestine suspected the killing of the teenager was retaliatory.

Abbas added that Israeli forces have killed 16 Palestinians, including children and women, when conducting a manhunt in the West Bank territories in the past two weeks.