Amman, Feb 26 (EFE).- Palestinian and Israeli security representatives will meet this Sunday in Jordan, with the mediation of the Hashemite kingdom, Egypt and the United States, to address the situation in the West Bank and prevent a further escalation of violence in the region Jordanian official media reported.
The meeting will take place in the Jordanian city of Aqaba, on the Red Sea, and will be the first of its kind for years in Jordan, a country that signed peace with Israel in 1994 and is, along with Egypt (1979), a key mediator in the peace process between the Palestinians and Israel.
The meeting, in which “there will be international and regional participation”, takes place “in the framework of efforts to calm the situation and pave the way for a broader political (communication) between the two parties,” Jordanian sources said. quoted by the official television of the Hashemite kingdom Almamlaka.
The objective is to “stop the deterioration of the situation (…) and stop the unilateral measures and the escalation that threaten to unleash cycles of violence, in addition to achieving security and economic measures to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people, they added.
The meeting takes place at a time of tension after the escalation of violence in the West Bank, where last Wednesday a dozen Palestinians died and more than a hundred were injured during an Israeli military operation in the city of Nablus, in one of the days most violent in the area in recent years.
Wednesday’s incidents add to a wave of violence that has already claimed the lives of 59 Palestinians and 11 Israelis so far in 2023.
Much of the death in recent weeks occurred during clashes sparked by Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank, as well as in deadly attacks by Palestinians against Israelis.
The United States on Thursday called on Palestine and Israel to reduce tensions, and offered its help as a mediator for the resolution of the conflict, considering that “it is imperative to address the tensions that have inflamed in recent times,” according to the department spokesman. of State, Ned Price.
Arab League countries, including Jordan and Egypt, have repeatedly blamed the latest escalations of violence on Israel’s “unilateral measures” in the West Bank, particularly in East Jerusalem.
The Israeli incursion into Nablus was the latest in a series of tensions that followed the inauguration of the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that began with the surprise visit in early January of Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, to the Esplanade of the Mosques, and it has been growing in recent weeks.
