Jordan will host Palestinian-Israeli talks as the conflict escalates

• Jordan to hold a “political-security” meeting between Israel and Palestine.
• The political-security meeting is part of stepped-up ongoing efforts by Jordan.
• The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 62 Palestinian adults and children since the beginning of this year.

Jordan will on Sunday host a “political-security” meeting between Israel and the Palestinians to attempt and restore peace to the occupied Palestinian territories amid fatal violence, a Jordanian government official said.

Representatives from the United States and Egypt will also attend the meeting in the Red Sea resort of Aqaba.

It aims at “building trust” between Israel and the Palestinians.

The talks will take place after 11 Palestinians were killed and over 80 were injured in a fire battle on Wednesday when Israeli troops raided the West Bank city of Nablus, which Israel has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War.

The death toll was the greatest since the end of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in 2005, the year the UN began counting casualties.

Intensifying unrest this year has raised international concern, following the worst violence in the West Bank since UN records began in 2022.

“The political-security meeting is part of stepped-up ongoing efforts by Jordan in coordination with the Palestinian Authority and other parties to end unilateral measures (by Israel) and a security breakdown that could fuel more violence,” the Jordanian government official said.

The negotiations aim to achieve “security and economic measures to alleviate the hardships of the Palestinian people,” according to the official.

Jordan, like Egypt, is bound by an agreement with Israel.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 62 Palestinian adults and children since the beginning of this year.

According to calculations based on official sources from both sides, nine Israeli civilians, including three children, a police officer, and one Ukrainian civilian, were murdered during the same period.

Wednesday’s raid was the latest in a series of deadly Israeli military operations in the West Bank. Israel is led by a new coalition government that is widely regarded as the most right-wing in the country’s history.

The negotiations aim to achieve “security and economic measures to alleviate the hardships of the Palestinian people,” according to the official.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who assumed office in January,

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was re-elected in December, visited Amman in January for a rare meeting with King Abdullah II.

Jordan’s support for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians to end the decades-long conflict was also underlined by Abdullah.

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