As unrest between Israel and Palestinians continues, a US envoy has arrived in Tel Aviv For de-escalation talks.
Hady Amr will take concern in talks with UN, Palestinian, and Israeli officials. Then he will reinforce what US diplomats say were the need for a sustainable calm.
On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza Strip on a refugee camp killed ten people. At the same time, a rocket from Palestine killed a man in Israel.
Since 2014, this week’s violence between Gaza and Israel is the worst.
Since the fighting began on Monday, at least 139 people are killed in Gaza and nine in Israel. Additionally, on Saturday, sirens were sounding again in Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel.
On Friday, the rift grew to the West Bank, where additional 11 Palestinians were killed, and a hundred others were injured.
Palestinian forces threw petrol bombs while Israeli troops used live fire, rubber bullets, and tear gas.
Saturday is the day when Palestinian commemorates what they call al-Nakba, the Catastrophe. It marks the supplanting of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes in the Arab-Israeli war. The forceful event began the day after Israel declared Independence in 1948.
What is the US envoy seeking to achieve?
Mr Amr’s arrival comes ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on Sunday. In Israel, the US embassy said his trip aimed to reinforce the need to work toward a sustainable calm.
US president’s administration has had to set up its game rapidly on the diplomatic front without an entire team. There is not a single nominee yet for the ambassador to Israel.
Mr Amr is a mid-level diplomat without the kind of rank held by special envoys in previous US administrations.
The warfare between Israel and Hamas was triggered by days of intensifying conflicts between Palestinians and Israeli police. It was at a holy hilltop compound in Jerusalem.
The locale is revered by both Muslims and Jews who call it Haram al-Sharif and Temple Mount, respectively. Hamas demanded Israel remove police from there and the nearby predominantly Arab district of Sheikh Jarrah. It is also the place where Palestinian families face ouster by Jewish settlers.
Eventually, Hamas launched rockets when its ultimatum went unheeded.
