Israeli PM to Meet Sisi Soon, Says No Meeting will Be Held with Abbas

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (File photo: Reuters)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (File photo: Reuters)
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Israeli PM to Meet Sisi Soon, Says No Meeting will Be Held with Abbas

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (File photo: Reuters)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (File photo: Reuters)

The Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will travel this week to Sharm el-Sheikh to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, announced the official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation.

The visit is the first of its kind for an Israeli prime minister in more than ten years, days after the tripartite summit between Sisi, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Jordanian King Abdullah II.

Bennett will try to avoid progress on a political track with the Palestinians, while Sisi aims to pave the way for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

A senior Israeli official confirmed that Bennett would avoid discussing the Palestinian cause with Sisi and rather focus on security issues.

A spokesman for the Egyptian presidency, Ambassador Bassam Rady, told Radio Masr that the Egyptian-Jordanian-Palestinian summit reaffirmed the Egyptian-Jordanian support to the Palestinian cause.

"We have called on the international community and the international quartet to revive the peace process, under the new US administration and the new government in Israel," he added.

Egypt, Jordan, and Palestine agreed to keep communications channels at the level of foreign ministers and heads of security and intelligence services to reach a formula that will be activated during the coming period.

The Palestinians are working intensively with Egypt and Jordan to develop a plan that enjoys Arab and US support to launch a new political process in the region that leads to direct negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

The coordination intensified and accelerated after the war on the Gaza Strip and the US administration's desire to find a comprehensive solution based on the two-state solution.

The Palestinians received important signals from Washington after Biden met with Bennett last weekend and announced his support for the two-state solution.

Abbas met with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who granted the Palestinians several facilities.

During a Zoom conversation with officials of Jewish organizations in the US, Bennett said he intends to reduce tensions with the Palestinians despite the lack of "political breakthrough" with them.

The prime minister said that there has always been a dichotomy: either move towards a Palestinian state or do nothing.

"I think that in many areas it is possible to act to reduce the problem ... especially in the economic field. I believe that employment and living with dignity can improve the situation. Two parties can take measures to reduce tensions and improve daily life."

Asked about the meeting between Gantz and Abbas, Bennett said he did not intend to meet with the Palestinian President because he had filed a complaint against Israel before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

"I also do not want to create the illusion of something that will not happen because a disappointment can have negative consequences. We will not take drastic measures. We will freeze the construction and take measures to stabilize the area," he continued.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid confirmed there were no political talks with the Authority, adding that 90 percent of the contacts are done through security coordination.



UN Rights Office: At Least 12 Palestinians Killed in West Bank since Tuesday

An Israeli soldier keeps position during a large-scale Israeli army raid in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on January 24, 2025. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)
An Israeli soldier keeps position during a large-scale Israeli army raid in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on January 24, 2025. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)
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UN Rights Office: At Least 12 Palestinians Killed in West Bank since Tuesday

An Israeli soldier keeps position during a large-scale Israeli army raid in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on January 24, 2025. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)
An Israeli soldier keeps position during a large-scale Israeli army raid in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, on January 24, 2025. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)

Israeli operations in the West Bank have killed at least 12 Palestinians since Tuesday, the United Nations Human Rights office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said on Friday.

"Our office has verified that at least 12 Palestinians have been killed and 40 injured by Israeli security forces since Tuesday, most of them reportedly unarmed," he told a televised briefing.

"We are also concerned by repeated comments from some Israeli officials about plans to expand settlements further still and a fresh breach of international law. We recall again that the transfer by Israel of its own civilian population into territories it occupies also amounts to a war crime."

Hundreds of Jenin residents left their homes on Thursday, prompted by messages from drones fitted with loudspeakers, witnesses said, as the military demolished a number of houses on the third day of a major operation in the West Bank city.
The operation, involving large columns of vehicles backed by helicopters and drones, was launched in the first week of a ceasefire in Gaza that saw the first exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails since a brief truce in November 2023.
Israeli officials said the Jenin operation was aimed at what the military said were Iranian-backed militant groups in the refugee camp adjacent to the city, a major hub for armed Palestinian groups for years.