Israel/Palästina

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would likely wait until after Israel's Sept. 17 elections to release a peace plan for the region that was designed by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner.

A UN investigator says the world should consider cutting ties with Israel in support of Palestinian quest for statehood.

The Council has extended the mandate of the EU co-ordinating office for Palestinian police support (EUPOL COPPS) and the mandate of the EU border assistance mission for the Rafah crossing point (EU BAM Rafah), until 30 June 2020. These missions are part of wider EU efforts in support of Palestinian state building in the context of working towards a comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on a two-state solution.

The White House on Saturday outlined a $50 billion Middle East economic plan that would create a global investment fund to lift the Palestinian and neighboring Arab state economies, and fund a $5 billion transportation corridor to connect the West Bank and Gaza. … Palestinian officials reject the overall U.S.-led peace effort as heavily tilted in favor of Israel and likely to deny them a fully sovereign state of their own.

Israeli lawmakers have voted to dissolve parliament after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a coalition government. The vote triggered a fresh election, which will be held on 17 September.

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, is following with “deep concern” the latest developments across the Gaza-Israeli border and urges all parties to exercise maximum restraint. Over the weekend, hundreds of rockets were launched from the Occupied Palestinian Territory into southern Israel, and Israel retaliated with hundreds of airstrikes and tank fire.

There has been a lull in hostilities in the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants said that a ceasefire with Israel had been agreed. It comes after a weekend during which Palestinian militants launched hundreds of rockets into Israel prompting retaliatory air and artillery strikes. At least four Israelis and 25 Palestinians were killed. Israel has not confirmed the truce, but its military has lifted emergency measures in place in southern Israel.

The UN is “continuing to address the humanitarian, economic and political crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” but efforts are continually undermined by the lack of any political progress towards a two-State solution, said the head of UN Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) on Monday.

Israeli soldiers may have committed war crimes while responding to Palestinian protests on the Gaza border last year, UN human rights experts have said.

The spectres of violence and radicalism in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are growing, and the prospect of sustainable peace is fading by the day, a senior UN envoy in the region told the Security Council on Wednesday.