Israel refused to cooperate with the Ramallah meeting provided for by the ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Water.
Foreign ministers in five Arab countries that had planned to visit the occupied West Bank this weekend condemned Israel’s decision to block their plans.
The ministers condemned “Israel’s decision to ban the visit of the delegation to Ramallah (Sunday) to meet the president of the state of Palestine, Mahmud Abbas,” the Jordanian foreign ministry said on Saturday.
The ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were to participate in the meeting alongside Turkiye.
Friday, Israel said that this would not allow the meeting of Arab foreign ministers, which would have forced Israeli consent to go to the occupied West Bank from Jordan because Israel controls the borders and the airspace of the Palestinian territory.
“The Palestinian Authority – which to date refuses to condemn the massacre of October 7 – intended to welcome in Ramallah a provocative meeting of foreign ministers from the Arab countries to discuss the promotion of the establishment of a Palestinian state,” the Israeli official said on Friday.
“Israel will not cooperate with such movements aimed at harming it and its security.”
In an article on X, Hussein Al Sheikh, vice-president of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said that Israel’s decision is a “dangerous escalation that reflects arrogant, provocative and unprecedented behavior”.
“We examine, with our Arab brothers, how to respond to this decision,” he wrote.
The Israeli move was before an international conference, co -chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, which will be held in New York from June 17 to 20 to discuss the issue of the Palestinian State.
Israel has undergone increasing pressures from the United Nations and European countries which promote a solution to two states in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, under which an independent Palestinian State would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognition of a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity”.
Last week, Israeli forces opened fire near a diplomatic convoy near Jenin’s refugee camp in an occupied West Bank, triggering an international outcry. The convoy included diplomats from the European Union, the United Kingdom, Russia and China.
The Israeli army said that its soldiers had drawn “warning shots” after the group has moved away from a contained road.
Israel has also authorized the expansion of illegal colonies in the occupied Palestinian territory, the government announcing its intention to establish 22 new colonies, in particular by retroactively legalizing a certain number of unauthorized outposts.
This decision was sentenced by Palestinian officials and world human rights groups.
The International Court of Justice said last July that the long-standing occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israel is illegal and called for the evacuation of all colonies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Since the start of the Israeli war against Gaza on October 7, 2023, at least 972 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured by the Israeli army and settlers through the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. It is estimated that 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the attacks led by Hamas on October 7 and more than 200 were taken in captivity.
Since then, at least 54,381 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip and 124,054 injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The Média Government Bureau of the Strip has updated the number of deaths at more than 61,700, saying that thousands of people who have disappeared under the rubble are presumed dead.