RAMALLAH, July 11 (Xinhua) -- A senior Palestinian official warned on Thursday that the Israeli moves against the Palestinians are pushing the regional situation into violence, chaos and extremism.

Israeli settlement expansion and withholding of Palestinian tax revenues "would bring the situation in the region into violence, blood shedding and chaos," Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, told a group of American academics, religious men and civil society representatives.

Peace can only be achieved by ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, he noted.