Mourners carry the body of Nassim Abu Fouda, 26, during his funeral in the West Bank on Monday. Israeli forces shot and killed the Palestinian man in Hebron, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Photo: AP
“We’ve seen horrific terrorist attacks in the last couple of days that we condemn and deplore,” Blinken told Saudi TV channel Al Arabiya.
In a press conference in Cairo on Monday, Blinken urged “all parties to calm things down and de-escalate tensions” while also stressing the “importance of working for a two-state solution”.
He commended Sisi for “Egypt’s important role in promoting stability in the region”. The US has historically taken a lead on Middle East diplomacy, and Egypt, which has relations with Israel, has long served as a mediator in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Blinken also said Egypt had taken “important strides” protecting religious freedoms, empowering women and releasing some prisoners.
“But the concerns that we have remain and in the spirit of candour and the spirit of the partnership we have, we expressed those very clearly,” Blinken said.
Meanwhile, in the latest bloodshed, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man in the West Bank city of Hebron, said the Palestinian health ministry, the 35th Palestinian killed this month, according to an AFP tally based on official sources from both sides.
Blinken was later due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a veteran leader who returned to power late last year at the helm of a right-wing government, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
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Blinken had long planned the trip, but it takes on a new urgency after some of the worst violence in years.
Netanyahu’s cabinet moved on Sunday to punish “the families of terrorists that support terrorism” with home demolitions and other measures.
The Israeli government is also planning to rescind the rights to social security benefits of attackers’ relatives, and have steps to make it easier for Israeli citizens to obtain permits to carry firearms.
Abbas met with CIA chief William Burns in Ramallah on Sunday to discuss the “dangerous developments”, said the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The latest bloodshed has heightened international concern, and Pope Francis on Sunday deplored the “death spiral”.
French President Emmanuel Macron urged all parties to avoid feeding a “spiral of violence” and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for “maximum responsibility” on all sides.
The diplomats and intelligence services of Egypt, a major recipient of American military aid, are regularly called upon to intercede between Israelis and Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes a cabinet meeting. File photo: Reuters
Blinken’s Israel visit is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to engage quickly with Netanyahu, who had tense relations with the previous Democratic administration under Barack Obama.
While there, Blinken was expected to reiterate US support for a Palestinian state, a prospect few expect to advance under the new Israeli government.
The State Department said Blinken would call for the preservation of the status quo at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is holy both to Jews and Muslims.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right ideologue who holds a security post in Netanyahu’s government, in early January defiantly visited the site, which Jews call the Temple Mount.
Additional reporting by Reuters