Contact between Israelis and Palestinians – despite what the Arabic-speaking populations call “fauda” (chaos) – is never really broken between the two camps. Israeli and Palestinian delegations will meet in Jordan on Sunday to try to restore calm in the Palestinian Territories and Israel, after several days of deadly violence, according to a Jordanian government official. The goal? Perhaps a “hudna”, truce in French, temporary between the belligerents and to stop the murderous escalation.
The “politico-security” meeting will be held in the Red Sea resort of Aqaba, attended by representatives of the United States and Egypt, which is bound like Jordan by a peace treaty with Israel, this official said. official who requested anonymity. According to him, the talks aim to “build confidence” between Israel and the Palestinians and achieve measures of calm.
“This meeting comes at a very critical time and is a necessary step by Jordan to try to reach an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians to end the escalation of violence,” he said. he still added. The talks are “part of Jordan’s intensified efforts in coordination with the Palestinian Authority and other parties to end (Israel’s) unilateral measures and a deterioration in security, which could fuel more violence…”, added the same government source.
“The decision to attend the Aqaba meeting, despite the pain and massacres the Palestinian people are enduring, comes from the desire to end the bloodshed,” the president’s Fatah party said on Twitter. Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas while other Palestinian factions have denounced the involvement of the Palestinian Authority. Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, is to attend the meeting, a security official said.
Biggest outbreak of violence since 2005
Israeli forces on Wednesday killed 11 Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, and, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, shot and wounded more than 80 people during an operation in Nablus (northern West Bank). The death toll is the heaviest since 2005. The conflict spreads to Jerusalem where seven Israelis were killed by a 21-year-old armed Palestinian who opened fire near an East Jerusalem synagogue during early prayers. Shabbat, January 27th.
Wednesday’s raid, the latest in a series of deadly Israeli military operations in the West Bank – territory occupied since 1967 by the Jewish state – comes nearly two months after the inauguration of a new government in Israel, one of the most right-wing in the country’s history. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu traveled to Amman in January for a rare meeting with King Abdullah II, who insisted on “the need to maintain calm and cease all acts of violence”, the royal palace said at the time. .