JERUSALEM - Former British prime minister Tony Blair launched a new campaign for a peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians in Jerusalem on Friday.
Blair, who was an envoy for the Middle East peacemaking Quartet, said he was now acting as a private citizen to push for a negotiated settlement.
"What I will do both here and throughout the region is work through this Initiative for the Middle East, as I call it, to try and push and promote...a political process in the framework of the Arab peace initiative, major change on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank, and Palestinian unity on the basis of peace," he said.
The Quartet - the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States - appointed Blair to support the Palestinian economy and institutions in preparation for eventual statehood.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian during clashes near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
A statement from the ministry announced "the death of a young man, Lafi Yusuf Awad, 22 years old, from the village of Budrus in the district of Ramallah, (killed) by a bullet from Israeli forces".
A Palestinian teenager shot by troops during clashes on Thursday in the West Bank city of Hebron died of his injuries on Friday, a Palestinian hospital official said.
Mahmud Shalaldeh, 18, was shot and wounded after the funeral of a relative, Abdallah Shalaldeh, who was killed by undercover Israeli agents during a Wednesday night arrest raid on the city's Al-Ahli hospital.
A Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis in the southern West Bank on Friday, the military said, while in the nearby city of Hebron Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian involved in stone-throwing clashes, medics said. The gunman opened fire on a family travelling near the Jewish settlement of Otneil, which is close to Hebron, Israel medics and media reported.
Israel's Channel 2 said a Palestinian vehicle overtook two Israeli cars on a main road and fired at the first, a people carrier, in which a man in his 40s and an 18-year-old youth, thought to be his son, were killed. One of three other passengers in the vehicle was lightly hurt.