United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to the Middle East amid a ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinian factions in Gaza, but tensions have remained high in occupied East Jerusalem after Israeli police escorted Jewish settlers to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Sunday.
Blinken will depart on Monday for a short visit to Israel, the occupied West Bank, Jordan and Egypt for what will be the administration of President Joe Biden’s highest level in-person meeting on the most recent escalation, which began on May 10 and lasted for 11 days.
At least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, were killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
At least 12 Israelis, including two children, were killed by rockets fired from Gaza before the ceasefire was reached on Friday.
Health authorities in the occupied West Bank have separately confirmed 27 killed in that region, bringing the total to 275 across all Palestinian territories.
“At the request of President Biden, I am traveling to Jerusalem, Ramallah, Cairo, and Amman to meet with the parties to support their efforts to solidify a ceasefire,” the secretary of state said in a tweet on Monday.
The 11 days of fighting were proceeded by protests over the forced expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem and crackdowns by Israeli security forces at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. The violent storming of the mosque on Islam’s holy night of Laylat al-Qadr caused global outrage.
While the administration has been roundly criticised for appearing to take a hands-off approach to the violence, in the statement on Monday, Biden defended Washington’s “quiet, intensive diplomacy to bring about a ceasefire”.
Biden said Blinken will meet with “Israeli leaders about our ironclad commitment to Israel’s security. He will continue our administration’s efforts to rebuild ties to, and support for, the Palestinian people and leaders, after years of neglect.
“And he will engage other key partners in the region, including on the coordinated international effort to ensure immediate assistance reaches Gaza in a way that benefits the people there and not Hamas, and on reducing the risk of further conflict in the coming months,” Biden said.
The administration had previously sent envoy Hady Amr to the region in an attempt to calm the situation.
Blinken’s visit comes as Egyptian mediators have been shuttling between Israel and the Gaza Strip, which is governed by Hamas, in attempts to sustain the ceasefire. The mediators have also met Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank.
It also comes after the United Nations Security Council on Saturday called for “full adherence to the ceasefire”. It was the panel’s first statement on the situation since the violence began, after the US had four times blocked proposals calling for a ceasefire.