US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pictured in Cairo on January 30
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has begun a trip to the Middle East by calling for calm beween Israeli and Palestinian forces amid flaring violence.
Mr Blinken’s visit was planned prior to the heightened unrest, which has seen dozens of people killed this month across the two sides.
In an interview with Saudi-owned news outlet Al Arabiya on Sunday, Mr Blinken reportedly blasted the attacks as “deeply disturbing”, adding: “The most important thing in the near term is to try to get some calm.”
According to a State Department transcript, Mr Blinken said: “I think we’ve seen horrific terrorist attacks in the last couple of days that we condemn and deplore.
“President Biden has spoken to this. We also see civilian loss of life that is very deeply disturbing. And the most important thing in the near term is to try to get some calm.
“But I’ll have more to say to that in the next couple of days. I want the chance to speak to the Israeli Government, to the Palestinian Authority leadership, to hear from people as well who are being affected by this in their daily lives.”
Meanwhile in a meeting on Monday, Mr Blinken discussed ongoing efforts to de-escalate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo, said the US State Department.
He also “noted the importance of unified international support for holding elections in Libya, and underscored the importance of the Framework Political Agreement to the democratic aspirations of the Sudanese people”, said US State Department spokesman Ned Price in a statement.
Mr Blinken’s trip to the region comes amid spiralling violence between Israeli and Palestinian forces.
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in a flashpoint city in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the 26-year-old was shot in Hebron - a frequent centre of clashes between the Israeli military and Palestinians.
Last week, an Israeli military raid on a militant stronghold in the West Bank city of Jenin killed 10 people, most of them militants, while a Palestinian shooting attack in an east Jerusalem Jewish settlement on Friday killed seven Israelis.
The violence comes after months of Israeli arrest raids in the West Bank, which were launched after a wave of Palestinians attacks against Israelis in the spring of 2022 that killed 19 people.
Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem last year, making it the deadliest year in those territories since 2004, according to figures from the Israeli rights group B'Tselem. Another 10 Israelis were killed later last year, raising the 2022 Israeli death toll to 29.
Israel says that most of those killed have been militants but others — including youths protesting the incursions and other people not involved in confrontations — have also been killed.
Israel says the military raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks while the Palestinians view them as further entrenchment of Israel's open-ended, 55-year occupation.
The bloodshed has spiked this month, during the first weeks of Israel's new far-right government, which has promised to take a tough stance against the Palestinians and ramp up settlement construction. Monday's death brings the toll of Palestinians killed this month to 35.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the Six-Day War in 1967 - territories the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for independent state.
