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As part of his visit to the Middle East, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, traveled to Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, on Tuesday. He met with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas, in the context of a new spiral of deadly violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his “sadness” over the deaths of “innocent Palestinians” in Israeli-Palestinian violence, during a meeting Tuesday, January 31, with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmud Abbas in the occupied West Bank.
“Let me begin by conveying my condolences and sadness for the deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians who have lost their lives in the escalation of violence over the past year,” he said at the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah, in the West Bank, the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has left 235 dead in 2022, almost 90% of them Palestinians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli and Palestinian sources. According to the UN, last year was the deadliest since 2005 in the West Bank.
Israel has acknowledged in some cases that its forces have mistakenly killed civilians in so-called “anti-terror” raids.
“Stop the violence” and “reduce tensions
“Both Palestinians and Israelis have a growing sense of insecurity, a growing fear in their homes, in their communities and in their places of worship,” Antony Blinken said in Ramallah. “We believe it is important to take de-escalation measures, stop the violence, reduce tensions (…),” he added, warning against any measures that could undermine the Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution.
He cited “(Israeli) settlement expansion, legalization of (non-government sanctioned) savagery settlements, demolitions and evictions”, policies of Israeli governments.
Antony Blinken also lamented “the narrowing of the horizon of hope for the Palestinians.” We believe that this too must change.”
The long-planned tour of the US diplomatic chief began in Egypt on Sunday and ended on Tuesday night. It comes after several days of violence marked by Palestinian attacks in East Jerusalem that left seven dead and deadly incursions by the Israeli army into the West Bank.
*With AFP; adapted from its original French version
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