Amid a surge of violence in the West Bank, the United States and Jordan are backing an Egyptian initiative to host Israeli and Palestinian officials in the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday.
The five-party meeting comes after a US-brokered summit on February 26 in Jordan, the first of its kind in years, failed to end violence on the ground despite securing de-escalation pledges from both Israelis and Palestinians.
“aims to support dialogue between the Palestinian and Israeli sides to work to stop unilateral actions and escalation,” read a statement from Egypt’s foreign ministry ahead of the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting.
In addition, this “may help pave the way for the revival of the peace process” as the report puts it.
Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip in a war in 1967, and the Palestinians want to turn East Jerusalem into their capital.
Although peace talks have been frozen since 2014, Palestinians claim that growing Jewish settlements have hampered efforts to create a functional Palestinian state.
Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, begins in late March.
Ramadan, which this year falls on the same dates as the Jewish and Christian holidays of Passover and Easter, has historically been a time of heightened tension between Israeli police and Palestinians in and around Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque.
