Jordan will be the host to a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian representatives on Sunday, Jordanian news outlet Al-Ghad reported on Thursday.
The newspaper quotes an informed source saying that the meeting will be attended by representatives of Egypt and the US and aims to end unilateral steps to restore political engagement between the two sides. This comes following a deadly IDF raid in Nablus and the subsequent rocket fire from Gaza into Israel earlier this week.
The first such meeting in years
The meeting, which will be held in Aqaba, Jordan, will include US, Israeli, Palestinian and other regional and international participants, will be the first meeting of its kind in many years, as per the report. Israel confirmed the meeting and participants include National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar and Foreign Affairs Ministry Director-General Ronan Levy. The purpose of the meeting will be to calm security tensions in the region ahead of Ramadan.
Stopping all unilateral measures will be the main starting point for stopping the deterioration of the situation, and it will be one of the main issues of discussion at the meeting.
The source added that Jordan has made intensive efforts in the past to stop unilateral steps and escalating measures, that would bring about more cycles of violence. Jordan also took economic and security measures to lessen the suffering of the Palestinians.
Diplomatic sources added that the meeting comes at a very sensitive time and is thus of major importance. The sources told Al-Ghad that the meeting is a necessary step to reach Palestinian-Israeli understandings that would stop the deterioration and pave the way for more general engagement in the future.
Egyptian efforts
London-based Arab newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported on Friday that Egypt had intensive contact with Palestinian factions to prevent further escalation of violence. A source told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the Egyptian mediators especially tried to persuade the factions in Gaza not to fire rockets into Israel, as this would only push Israel to launch a military operation in the Gaza strip.
The leaders of the Gaza factions responded by saying: "The principle of the unity of the theater cannot be abolished, and that the process of launching rockets will continue and may develop into other qualitative operations," according to the source.
Egypt also turned to the US, asking them to put pressure on Israel not to escalate the violence further, the source said.