Senior Palestinian and Israeli representatives have come to Jordan to discuss last week’s flare-up of violence. It is one of the first times in ages that senior officials are talking to each other again.
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 are also joining today’s meeting, the AP news agency reports. Anonymous officials tell the news agency that the meeting is a US initiative. The meeting is said to have been arranged to ease tensions before Ramadan begins at the end of March.
The meeting will be attended by senior security representatives of the Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the West Bank. But Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, is 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.
- Concerns about escalation of violence between Israel and Palestinians: why did it catch fire?
- Israel reports rockets from Gaza shortly after raid on West Bank
- Israeli raid on West Bank escalates: 11 dead and 102 wounded reported
