‘END THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE’ BLINKEN URGES TO ISRAEL, PALESTINIANS

Wed 20 April 2022:

Following a severe spike of tensions between the two sides in recent days, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to “end the cycle of violence.”

Blinken stressed “the importance of Israelis and Palestinians working to end the cycle of violence in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza by exercising restraint and refraining from actions that escalate tensions” in separate calls with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, according to the State Department.

He also urged both sides to exercise “restraint” and refrain “from actions that escalate tensions” including at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam’s third-holiest site, but known to Jews as the Temple Mount – Judaism’s holiest place – in Jerusalem’s Israeli-annexed Old City.

In his call with Lapid, Blinken reiterated the US government’s “steadfast commitment” to Israel’s security and condemned recent rocket attacks from Gaza.

In his call with Abbas, Blinken affirmed the US commitment to improving Palestinians’ quality of life.

But with both leaders, Blinken urged for a two-state solution.

Yael Lempert, the State Department’s assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, will go to Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, and Egypt for talks aimed at “reducing tensions” in the region, the State Department announced Tuesday evening.

Her journey will span from Tuesday through the 26th of April.

After a weekend of violence around the Jerusalem holy site, Israel launched its first air raid on the Gaza Strip in months, in response to a missile fired from the Palestinian territory.

The strikes follow weeks of rising violence in which 23 Palestinians and Arab-Israelis were killed.

The violence, coinciding with the Jewish Passover festival as well as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, has sparked fears of a repeat of last year’s events, when similar circumstances sparked an 11-day war that levelled parts of Gaza.

On Friday, at least 152 Palestinians were wounded by Israeli police inside the mosque compound, the latest outbreak in an upsurge of violence that has raised fears of a slide back to wider conflict.

Hamas had warned that any incidents at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site revered by Muslims and Jews, would be a “red line” after Israeli forces raided the site in occupied East Jerusalem several times in recent days, arresting hundreds of Palestinians and leaving dozens injured.

Palestinians accuse Israel of encroaching at Al-Aqsa during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Israel says Palestinian protesters seek to disrupt Muslim prayer for political ends and to prevent visits by Jews, who are celebrating Passover.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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