US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed his grief for the innocent Palestinians slain in a recent uptick in violence in the occupied West Bank following a meeting with Mahmud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.
Blinken said, “I am sorrowful for the innocent Palestinian people who have lost their lives in the growing violence over the previous year.”
“Palestinians and Israelis alike are experiencing growing insecurity, growing fear in their homes, in their communities, and in their places of worship,” he added.
After meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Washington’s top diplomat met Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah as the final phase of a Middle East tour intended to quell the carnage.
A fresh wave of violence is wreaking havoc in the neighborhood. Ten Palestinians were killed on Thursday in the West Bank’s bloodiest Israeli army operation in years.
On Friday, one day later, a Palestinian opened fire and killed seven people in an Israeli settlement in the annexation of east Jerusalem.
In addition to the six Israeli civilians, one of whom was a child, and the one Ukrainian slain on Friday, the violence claimed the lives of 35 Palestinian adults and children this month.
