GAZA - Egypt has stepped up mediation between Israel and the Palestinians in a bid to tamp down violence in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank and to prevent its spread to the Gaza Strip before the Muslim holy month of Ramadaan, officials said.
Cairo hosted leaders from Gaza's ruling Hamas Islamist militant group and from the smaller, allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group this week, according to the officials. Talks with Israeli representatives were held earlier, they said.
West Bank violence, which surged last year as Israel intensified raids following a series of lethal Palestinian street attacks in Israeli cities, has picked up pace since a hard-right Israeli government was sworn in on December 29.
Two Egyptian officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Cairo believed the situation could further spiral out of control, especially given Palestinian sensitivities about Israeli control of access to Jerusalem during Ramadaan, which begins in late March.
Egypt wanted the United States to appeal to Israel to help constrain an escalation of violence, the officials said. Egypt, for its part, was appealing to the PIJ, which spurns direct contact with Israel.
"More than ever, the Egyptians are worried of a possible new armed confrontation in 2023 because they realize it would be hard to restrain actions by some ministers of the new extremist government in Israel," a Palestinian official said.
"Egypt understands that if things blow up in the West Bank it will ignite an explosion in Gaza too," the Palestinian official said.
Israeli officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel last fought a 56-hour war in Gaza in August 2022 against PIJ, and the year before against Hamas. The two groups are sworn to Israel's destruction but have been observing a de facto extended truce with it, brokered by neighbouring Egypt in 2021.
PIJ spokesman Daoud Shehab accused Israel of trying to change the "status quo" in the West Bank and Jerusalem, a reference to the new government's plan to expand Jewish settlements and what Palestinians see as Jewish encroachment on a contested site in the holy city that is sacred to both faiths.
Shehab said the group told Egypt that "no one can restrain" themselves if "Israeli provocations… continue during Ramadaan."
Meanwhile on Saturday, a Jewish settler fatally shot a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said.
A number of Jewish settlers carrying pistols and one with a rifle had approached the village of Qrawat Bani Hassan and one fired a shot, killing 27-year-old Mothqal Rayyan, a Palestinian witness said.
According to the witness, the Israeli military arrived but only protected the settlers.
The Israeli military said its soldiers had been dispatched to the scene after riots erupted between dozens of Palestinians and Israelis. It said the soldiers had responded with riot dispersal measures and shooting into the air, after which the confrontation had ended.
The military said it was aware of reports that a Palestinian was evacuated to hospital before soldiers arrived and was killed as a result of a gunshot wound.
Israeli police said an inquiry had been opened into the events.
Among the areas where Palestinians seek statehood, the West Bank has seen a spike in violence since Israel intensified raids last year in response to a series of street attacks in its cities.
Also on Saturday, a rocket was fired towards Israel from the Gaza Strip and was intercepted by Israeli aerial defences, the military said. Sirens sounded in Israeli border communities, sending Israelis running to bomb shelters.
In a separate, an eight-year-old Israeli was declared dead on Saturday, raising the death toll to three, after a Palestinian driver allegedly rammed his car into a group of people at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem on Friday, Israeli officials said.
A six-year-old boy was killed and seven people were injured when the car ploughed into them, Israel's Army Radio reported, quoting medics at the scene.
Israeli police described the incident as a car-ramming attack and said the driver had been killed.
Earlier, Israeli emergency services said six people, including two children had been hurt in the incident.
Footage circulated on social media showed a blue car that had crashed into a pole at the bus stop in the Ramot Alon, a part of Jerusalem that was annexed by Israel after the 1967 Middle Eastern war.
The incident occurred during a period of high tension following an attack in which a lone Palestinian gunman shot seven people outside a synagogue last month.
REUTERS