File Photo: Britain s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly attends the second day of the annual Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, central England, on October 3, 2022. AFP
In a phone call with Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry on Thursday, Cleverly expressed the UK’s deep concern regarding the deterioration of the security and humanitarian situations in the Palestinian lands and the heightened violence between the two sides, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement.
The phone call discussed the latest “critical” developments in the occupied Palestinian territories and means of enhancing international and regional efforts to contain the current tensions between the Israeli and Palestinian sides.
Shoukry reviewed with Cleverly the Egyptian efforts that have been made for reinforcing calm in the occupied lands, and encouraging the Israeli and Palestinian sides to return to negotiations and break the current stalemate in the peace process.
Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians and injured over 100 others during a Wednesday raid on Nablus city in the occupied West Bank, according to officials, in the latest incident of a series of bloody raids by the Israeli troops this year.
Egypt condemned the Wednesday raid in a statement by the foreign ministry, warning that the ongoing and dangerous escalation in the occupied Palestinian territories recently increases the complexity and aggravation of the situation.
Since the start of this year, Israeli raids in the West Bank has claimed the lives of 59 Palestinian, both adults and children, and triggered Palestinian retaliatory attacks.
The Israeli forces carried out a deadly raid on Jenin camp late in January, which killed nine Palestinians. On the following day, a Palestinian man opened fire outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem, killing seven people.
Egypt has repeatedly called on Israel to refrain from deadly attacks on Palestinians and urged both sides to exercise restraint to prevent any further escalations in the conflict.
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