US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed on Monday January 30 in Cairo the "de-escalation of tensions" with the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, before traveling to Jerusalem and Ramallah in the midst of an outbreak of violence between Palestinians and Israelis.

This visit, planned for a long time, took a different turn with a new spiral of Israeli-Palestinian clashes that calls for calm from abroad do not seem to stem.

Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, a key player in mediation to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, just back from a tour in Asia, received Antony Blinken in Cairo.

Together, they "discussed ongoing efforts to de-escalate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians," State Department spokesman Ned Price said, stressing Cairo's "important" role in "promoting stability regional".

The fear of further escalation

Because once again, the deaths on the Palestinian and Israeli sides have multiplied in recent days: attacks, shootings, air raids and punitive measures continue to respond to each other while the world calls in vain for "restraint".

In the wake of recent anti-Israel attacks, the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu – the most right-wing in Israel's history – announced measures aimed at punishing relatives of the attackers.

Israeli forces sealed the house of the family of a Palestinian who killed six Israelis and a Ukrainian on Friday in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian part of the holy city occupied by Israel, with a view to destroying it.

The attack came a day after Israel's deadliest raid in years in the occupied West Bank with ten Palestinians killed in Jenin, followed by rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.

On Saturday, a 13-year-old Palestinian injured two Israelis, a father and son, also in East Jerusalem and on Sunday, Israeli guards killed a Palestinian in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. On Monday, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian in Hebron in the West Bank.

This violence raises fears of a new spiral and Antony Blinken must once again reiterate the American call for restraint on Monday with Benjamin Netanyahu and then with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Reconnecting with Netanyahu

Antony Blinken told the Saudi channel al-Arabiya "want to talk to the Israeli government and the leadership of the Palestinian Authority".

"I want to be able to hear what people who are affected on a daily basis [by the conflict] have to say," he said.

After Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, Antony Blinken met Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Choukri in Cairo.

Nothing filtered immediately on the content of the discussions.

Egypt, its diplomacy and above all its intelligence services, are regularly called upon to intervene in the Palestinian question.

The first Arab country to have signed peace with Israel in 1979, and a neighboring state in the Gaza Strip under Israeli blockade for more than fifteen years, Egypt receives Israeli heads of government as well as the leaders of the various Palestinian parties.

If the United States and Egypt – one of the main recipients of American military aid – are important diplomatic actors, the fact remains that for the experts, the room for maneuver of the Secretary of Condition appears limited.

Washington has condemned an "appalling" attack in East Jerusalem and Antony Blinken will urge Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas to "take urgent steps for de-escalation", according to the State Department.

But, in private, American officials do not hide their frustration with the escalation and impasse in which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict finds itself.

If little progress is expected on the de-escalation front, Washington is above all trying to reconnect with Benjamin Netanyahu, according to analysts.

Officials have recently succeeded in Jerusalem and some experts are talking about a possible visit by Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House in February.

With AFP

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