Israeli and Palestinian officials agreed on Sunday to establish a mechanism to curb violence and incitement, in talks that stressed the need to prevent any disruptive actions at Jerusalem’s holy sites when Ramadan starts later this week.
In a joint statement following talks in Egypt attended by US, Egyptian and Jordanian officials, the parties also reconfirmed commitments made at a meeting in Aqaba last month, including an Israeli pledge to stop discussion of any new settlement units for four months.
The 26th February Aqaba meeting, the first of its kind in years, failed to halt violence on the ground despite Israeli and Palestinian pledges to de-escalate that were reiterated at Sunday’s talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Over the past year, Israeli forces have made thousands of arrests in the West Bank and killed more than 200 Palestinians, including fighters and civilians, while more than 40 Israelis and three Ukrainians have died in Palestinian attacks.
The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen a surge of confrontations in recent months, with near-daily Israeli military raids and escalating violence by Jewish settlers, amid a spate of attacks by Palestinians.
At Sunday’s talks Israeli and Palestinian officials “agreed to establish a mechanism to curb and counter violence, incitement and inflammatory statements and actions”, which would report to a new meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh in April.
It did not give further details on the mechanism.
Read the article by Aidan Lewis in Sight Magazine.