Violence in the west bank entirely fault of the Palestinians...

They couldn't even live up to a simple agreement to guard some prisoners.

"Regrettably, the Palestinian Authority has never in the last four years met all its obligations under the Ramallah Agreement despite our repeated demands that they do so" Straw said, noting a pullout had been under consideration for over a year.

On March 8 Straw informed the Israeli government and the PA the UK would pull out of the Agreement "with immediate effect". The timing of the withdrawal, Straw said, had been withheld for "security reasons".

"If we gave notice, we could end up with a situation where our own monitors were themselves subject to kidnap or siege inside the prison" Straw said.