The US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, said that the US peace plan will be announced before the end of this year, while the Israeli occupation forces imposed a comprehensive closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which will continue until Wednesday night, on the occasion of the Jewish New Year.
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Friedman said: `` I am absolutely confident that the peace plan will be announced in 2019.I don't want to say in a week or a month, but we are very close to the finish line and before the end of the year. ''
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said before the last election that US President Donald Trump's peace plan would be published within days.
Asked whether the plan could be published before the formation of the next government coalition in Israel, Friedman told the paper: "We want to publish the plan in an environment where a government can interact with it, we want to deal with an existing government so that it is in a position to interact and respond and talk with us about it. . "I think we will respect the democratic process in Israel during the formation of the coalition government, and if anyone chooses to talk to us, we will help as much as possible in this process," he said.
"I am not pessimistic about the Palestinian reaction, although we are ready for that possibility," Friedman said. "I think the world is hungry for a proposal that offers a realistic solution to the 100-year-old conflict or more." ». In response to calls by some for the plan to be published now in anticipation of Trump's re-election, Friedman said: "We in the Trump administration have a long way to go, and at this stage we are not focused on providing anything prematurely because we still have a lot of time."
In addition, the Israeli occupation forces imposed a total closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the occasion of the Jewish New Year for three days.
The Israeli police set up military checkpoints inside Old Jerusalem, and alerted its members on the roads leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque, prevented many young men from entering it, and prevented Palestinians from the territory of 48 from entering the mosque, and imposed strict procedures on the entry of women, and detained their identity cards before allowing them to enter the yards of the Haram . The so-called Temple Communities called for massive mass incursions into Al-Aqsa, on the eve of Hebrew New Year, involving dozens of rabbis and senior members of the Temple Groups.
Yesterday morning, some 120 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Mughrabi Gate, while the Israeli occupation forces tightened their procedures on worshipers and prevented them from approaching the places that these settlers storm.
The Israeli occupation authorities also decided to close the Tomb of the Patriarchs to worshipers, today and tomorrow, under the pretext of Jewish holidays.During these two days, the occupation will allow the settlers to ransack the campus in all its halls and squares, while preventing Palestinian worshipers from entering it. "The Israeli policy in the Tomb of the Patriarchs is provocative, with malicious ambitions and intentions, through which Israel tries to take over the campus step by step after it has taken over the majority of it, and to control it, especially on Jewish holidays," said Hossam Abu al-Rub, undersecretary of the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs. This contradicts international conventions and laws that guarantee the protection of freedom of worship under occupation.