CAIRO (AP) — The leaders of Egypt and Jordan, and the Palestinian president, criticized Israel on Monday, saying it was fueling chaos and violence in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank as bloodshed between Israel and the Palestinians intensified .
The conviction came at the end of a three-way summit in the northern Egyptian city of el-Alamein, which brought together Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Jordanian King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The three accused Israel of a number of violations against Palestinians, including raids by Israeli soldiers on a disputed holy site in East Jerusalem and illegally withholding Palestinian money.
The site, known to the Jews as the Temple Mount, is the holiest site in Judaism. Today it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. The competing claims are at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The government of Israel did not immediately respond to the summit’s statement.
The past few months have been one of the deadliest in years in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More than 160 Palestinians have been killed this year by Israeli fire in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to a count by The Associated Press. Palestinians killed 29 people on the Israeli side during that time.
Israel’s new ultra-nationalist government, formed last December, has taken a tough approach to the Palestinians. In January, it decided to withhold $39 million from the Palestinian Authority and instead transfer the money to a compensation program for the families of Israeli victims of Palestinian militant attacks.
During violent flare-ups, Egypt, the first Arab country to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, regularly acted as a peace broker between the two sides.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East War, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Palestinians seek those areas for their hoped-for independent state.
