Amid violence, Israeli and Palestinian officials meet to promote calm

Fearing that an already bloody year could worsen during Ramadan, Palestinians and Israelis met for the second time in a month.

JERUSALEM – Israeli and Palestinian officials met in Egypt on Sunday, along with other representatives from the Middle East and the United States, in an effort to reduce tensions and the risk of violent conflict during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins this week.

The meeting in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el Sheikh came amid feared that Ramadan would be a particularly violent time, following the deadliest start to the year in more than two decades for Palestinians and Israelis. So far in 2023, more than 80 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, Palestinian officials say, most in armed clashes during arrest raids by Israeli forces, and around 14 Israelis have been killed in attacks by of the Palestinians.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Following a similar meeting held in Jordan last month - the first of its kind in years - the meeting in Egypt focused mainly on issues security and included a discussion of how to improve the financial situation of the Palestinian Authority, the body that administers parts of the occupied West Bank.

The broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not on the table in Sharm el-Sheikh. Peace talks have stalled for nearly a decade, and Israel's right-wing government includes far-right parties that reject any such dialogue and aspire to annex all of the occupied West Bank.

The Sharm el Sheikh meeting, like the one that preceded it in Aqaba, Jordan, was convened with the more modest aim of promoting calm and stability after a start to the year bloody.

According to a statement issued by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry after the meeting, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to try to defuse tensions and to maintain existing understandings and understandings between the two sides, including Palestinian autonomy in parts of the West Bank and a delicate arrangement over access and worship rights at a disputed holy site in Jerusalem.

The declaration indicates also that Israel has agreed to delay any discussion of settlement construction in the West Bank for four ths months and to postpone for six months any retroactive authorization of settlements built without government permission.

But few expected the declaration to be realized in its entirety. Its wording was very close to an earlier statement, issued after the Jordan conference, which had little effect on the ground; violence on both sides has continued to increase, as have Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas.

Violence is expected to escalate further during the fasting month of Ramadan , a volatile period during which Israel-Palestinian tensions have at times escalated into broader conflagrations and which this year overlaps with the Jewish holiday of Passover. Both of these events will increase Jewish and Muslim visits to a holy site in Jerusalem that is at the heart of the conflict.

As the conference was taking place in Egypt, a Palestinian gunman was injured two Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, one of whom also had US citizenship, according to US Ambassador to Israel Thomas R. Nides. The shooting occurred at the same roundabout in Huwara, a Palestinian town, where a Palestinian shot dead two other Israelis while the conference was being held in Jordan.

The attack On Sunday, calls were made in Israel for the Israeli delegation to leave the conference early, and extremist settlers called for retaliation. “Erase Huwara. Now!” wrote Elisha Yered, adviser to a far-right lawmaker in the ruling coalition. “Until we fix this, we will continue to be murdered in the streets.”

Last month's shooting caused a wave of colonization...