JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday for “urgent steps” to calm spiralling violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after high-level talks in Jerusalem.
Washington’s top diplomat travelled to Jerusalem on the second leg of his Middle East tour, after meeting Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and foreign minister in Cairo.
Israel is reeling from an attack Friday that killed seven civilians outside a synagogue in annexed east Jerusalem, a day after the deadliest army raid in years in the occupied West Bank claimed 10 Palestinian lives.
Following talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken urged “all sides now to take urgent steps to restore calm, to deescalate”.
“We want to make sure that there’s an environment in which we can, I hope, at some point, create the conditions where we can start to restore a sense of security for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” he said.
Israel seals home of Palestinian synagogue shooter
In the latest bloodshed, Israeli troops Monday killed a Palestinian driver in the West Bank, officials on both sides said, with the army saying the car had hit a soldier’s leg before speeding off.
Since the start of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 35 Palestinian adults and children – including attackers, militants and civilians.
‘Dangerous developments’
The United States has historically taken a lead on Middle East diplomacy, and Egypt, which has relations with Israel, has long served as a mediator in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Blinken begins Middle East trip amid spate of violence
Following what Blinken described as “very candid” discussion with Netanyahu, the top US diplomat is due to meet Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.
Blinken envoy will also travel to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.
Abbas met with CIA chief William Burns in Ramallah late Sunday to discuss the “dangerous developments”, said the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. The US embassy declined to comment.
Blinken’s long-planned visit has taken on a new urgency amid the spiralling violence.
The fatal east Jerusalem shooting was preceded by the Israeli forces’ deadliest operation in the West Bank in years.
Ten people were killed Thursday in the densely populated Jenin refugee camp, in a raid Israel said targeted Islamic Jihad operatives.
The military later hit sites in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.
Netanyahu’s cabinet has vowed a tough response and moved to punish “the families of terrorists that support terrorism” with home demolitions and other measures.
His government is also planning to rescind the rights to social security benefits of attackers’ relatives, and steps to make it easier for Israeli citizens to obtain permits to carry firearms.