Talks in Egypt to restore calm between Israelis and Palestinians
Palestinian protest in Gaza against the Israeli-Palestinian meeting taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Egypt hosts talks to try to ease tensions tensions between Israelis and Palestinians after a hundred deaths since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, an Israeli was shot and seriously injured in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.
Gathered in the seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Israeli, Palestinian, American, Egyptian and Jordanian political and military leaders resumed word for word their commitments from Aqaba, Jordan, where they had previously met at the end of February.
The Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority have reiterated their desire to halt unilateral measures for three to six months, according to a statement issued by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
These unilateral measures – denounced by the international community – are the expansion of Jewish settlement in the West Bank, which the UN repeats is illegal under international law.
According to the statement, Israel pledges to stop discussing the establishment of new settlement units for four months and not to legalize informal settlements for six months.
< p class="e-p">A new meeting will take place in April in Egypt, according to Egyptian diplomacy.
An Israeli official, however, added, on condition of anonymity, that a dialogue still needed to be established to lead to possible agreements on the cessation of unilateral measures. .
Israel has not taken such action since mid-February, when it legalized – under Israeli law alone – nine West Bank settlements established without #x27;Government endorsement, some for years.
Last Monday, Israel's parliament passed a draft amendment to a law that clears the way for Israelis to settle in Jewish settlements in the northern West Bank dismantled in 2005, along with while Israel was unilaterally withdrawing from the Gaza Strip.
In Huwara, a Palestinian town in the northern West Bank, an Israeli was seriously wounded by bullets on Sunday, according to Magen David Adom (MADA), the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, which initially announced two wounded before back on its toll of the attack.
The Israeli army claimed that an assailant opened fire on an Israeli vehicle before driving off. being wounded by soldiers' fire and captured.
During the first round of negotiations, on February 26 in Aqaba, two Israeli settlers were killed in Huwara by a Palestinian gunman, a member of the armed wing of the Islamist movement Hamas. Dozens of Jewish settlers then attacked Huwara, burning cars and buildings.
Without claiming responsibility for the new attack in Huwara, Hamas and Islamic Jihad called it a normal response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation.
Saying to pray for the [Israeli] hero injured in Huwara, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called for an escalation to be prevented and promised to act with determination against terrorism as Ramadan, often synonymous with Islam, begins this week. x27; scuffles in the holy sites of East Jerusalem occupied and annexed by Israel.
In Aqaba already, Israelis and Palestinians had committed themselves to de-escalation: three weeks later , 24 Palestinians and two Israelis were killed.
Since the start of the year, 86 Palestinians, 13 Israelis and one Ukrainian have been killed in conflict-related violence, according to an AFP tally from official Israeli and Palestinian sources.
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which brings together several Palestinian factions but not Hamas, is taking part in negotiations with Israel, led since December by one of the most right-wing governments in its history .
However, in the occupied territories, the involvement of the PLO has drawn criticism.
Hamas has chosen to escalate resistance against the occupation and opposes the Sharm el-Sheikh summit as it does all summits aimed at calming the situation, said Moussa Abou Marzouq, cadre of the movement in Gaza.
The Zionist enemy is using these summits to carry out more attacks, adds a press release from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( PFLP, left) and Islamic Jihad.
Palestinian leaders must be responsible and leave negotiations, a leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine told AFP (FDLP).
Egypt, its diplomacy and above all its intelligence services are regularly called upon on the Palestinian issue. The first Arab country to have signed peace with Israel in 1979, and a neighbor of the Gaza Strip, Egypt receives Israeli heads of government as well as the leaders of the various Palestinian parties.
