Israel killed chances to resume peace talks with the Palestinians by evicting two families from their houses in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian leadership said on Sunday.

"This step is the coup de grace delivered to the peace process," said Rafiq al-Husseini, director of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' office.

On Sunday morning, Israeli police forced two Palestinian families of 53 people from their houses in al-Sheikh Jarrah Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem after a court ruled that the houses were owned by Israeli settlers.

Clashes erupted between the Israeli forces and the Palestinian residents during the evacuation of the families that have nearly 20 children.

"All documents prove that the Jerusalem families have owned these houses for more than 50 years, at odds with the Israeli occupation's claims," al-Husseini added.

He said Israel's move aims to erect a new Jewish settlement despite international protest over the settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat echoed al-Husseini in a statement, saying, "While Israeli authorities have promised the US administration that home demolitions, home evictions and others provocations against Palestinian Jerusalemites would be stopped, what we've seen on the ground is completely the opposite."

Israel was "showing its utter failure to respect international law, the Road Map and the most basic moral and humanitarian principles," referring to the US-backed peace plan which envisions a Palestinian state alongside the Jewish one, he added.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) refuses to resume the peace negotiations with Israel due to the settlement activities which annex the future Palestinian statehood's land to Israel.

For Israel's part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday said at the weekly cabinet meeting that his country was ready for peace negotiations with its Arab neighbors without preconditions, including the PNA.

However, the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process showed no sign yet of any breakthrough in sight, amid intensive calls of international community for rejuvenation.

(Xinhua News Agency August 3, 2009)