Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials meet for talks in Egypt
Backed by the United States and Jordan, the day-long meeting follows last month’s talks in Jordan.
Israeli and Palestinian officials are meeting in Egypt for talks amid criticism and calls for a boycott of Palestinian political parties.
The one-day meeting, in which Egyptian, American and Jordanian officials will participate, began Sunday in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Conversations come before RamadanIt is set to begin Thursday in a diplomatic push to maintain “quiet” during the holy month when things often escalate between Israeli forces and Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The situation on the ground has been tense for more than a year, with frequent raids and almost daily killings of Palestinians by the Israeli army, which rose under the new far-right Israeli government that was sworn in at the end of last year. .
A statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that the talks aim to “support dialogue between the Palestinian and Israeli sides to work to stop unilateral measures and escalation, break the existing cycle of violence and achieve calm.”
The statement added that this would “facilitate the creation of a suitable atmosphere for the resumption of the peace process.”
On Saturday, Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh said the Palestinian delegation would participate in order to “defend the right of our Palestinian people to freedom and independence,” and to “defend the right of our Palestinian people to freedom and independence.”[request] Stop this continuous Israeli aggression against us, and stop all measures and policies that violate our blood, land, property, and penalties.
Israeli media reported that National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi leads the Israeli delegation, along with the head of intelligence (Shin Bet) Ronen Bar and the military general, Ghassan Elyan.
All major Palestinian political parties, with the exception of Fatah, which runs the Palestinian Authority, opposed the talks and He called for a boycott. Hamas, the armed group that rules the besieged Gaza Strip, said it “rejects the Sharm el-Sheikh conference”.
The spokesman Musa Abu Marzouk said in a statement On Friday, it was published that “the European and American authorities are issuing statements about the crimes of Al [Israeli] But do not take any measures to pressure the Israeli entity to stop its crimes.”
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad Party and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a joint statement that the Palestinian Authority’s insistence on joining the Sharm el-Sheikh summit “constitutes a coup against the popular will.”
They said that Israel “is taking advantage of these security summits and meetings to launch more aggression against our people.”
Jordan talks
Sunday’s talks follow a US-brokered summit in Jordan last month with the participation of Palestinian Authority and Israeli officials – the first of its kind in years. This meeting was also met with widespread opposition and failed to restrict the escalating repressive Israeli occupation measures against the Palestinians.
While the closing statement of the Aqaba Summit in Jordan claimed that Israel had agreed to stop announcing illegal new settlements for several months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied making any such commitments a few hours after the meeting ended.
“Contrary to reports and tweets about the meeting in Jordan, there is no change in Israeli policy,” Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said at the time.
Israel has established hundreds of illegal settlements and outposts, home to about 700,000 Israeli settlers, across the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on those lands that Israel occupied militarily in 1967.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed 89 Palestinians, including 18 children and one woman, this year, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
