Israel and Palestinian Authority agree to reduce tensions

Senior Palestinian and Israeli officials have agreed to ease tensions at a meeting in Jordan.

After the meeting, Israel said, among other things, that it will not announce any new settlements in the occupied West Bank for the next four months, but it is still unclear what exactly this will mean in practice. The Palestinian Authority resumes security policy coordination with Israel.

The two sides want to meet again next month in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The representatives had come to Jordan to discuss the outbreak of violence last week. It was one of the first times in ages that senior officials spoke to each other again.

Reducing tensions for Ramadan

Today there was another violent incident. A Palestinian gunman killed two Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli officials.

Delegations from Egypt, Jordan and the United States also joined today’s meeting. Anonymous officials tell the AP news agency that the meeting was a US initiative. The meeting is said to have been arranged to ease tensions before Ramadan begins at the end of March.

The meeting was attended by senior security representatives of the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the West Bank. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, was not there. The organization calls the meeting “a stab in the back of the Palestinian people”. Hundreds of people took to the streets of Gaza City to demonstrate against it after the meeting was announced.

Violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories has flared up again in recent weeks. The Israeli army launched a large-scale raid on the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. At least 11 people were killed and more than 100 people were injured, some of them seriously, according to the Palestinian authorities.

Palestinian militants then fired several rockets into southern Israel. The international community fears an escalation of violence.