Israeli and Palestinian delegations meet Sunday, February 26 in Jordan to try to restore calm in the Palestinian territoriesfollowing days of deadly violence, officials said.
White House Middle East Coordinator Brett McGurk will also attend Sunday’s meeting, which is being held in Jordan’s southern port of Aqaba.
Senior Israeli and Palestinian officials in charge of security issues are at the negotiating table for the first time in several years.
The talks are being held as part of diplomatic efforts undertaken by Jordan, the United States and Egypt to restore calm in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank, the officials said, preferring to maintain the ‘anonymity.
The meeting aims to give hope for a political future to the Palestinians, a senior Jordanian official told Archyde.com, adding that if these goals are achieved, “they will be visible on the spot”.
“The decision to attend the Aqaba meeting, despite the pain and massacres that the Palestinian people are enduring, comes from the desire to end the bloodshed,” the president’s Fatah party said on Twitter. Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas while other Palestinian factions have denounced the involvement of the Palestinian Authority.
Clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants have escalated in recent months, raising fears of a new outbreak of violence in the region. Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians on Wednesday, including a 16-year-old boy, and, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, wounded by bullets more than 80 people during an operation in Nablus (north of the West Bank). This toll is the heaviest since 2005.
Israeli police and Palestinians have clashed in recent years near the Al Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City during Ramadan, which coincided with the Jewish Passover and Christian Easter holidays.
With AFP and Archyde.com
