Israel is fuelling violence against Palestinians: Egypt, Jordan, Palestine

The leaders of Egypt, Jordan and Palestine have slammed Israel, saying it was fuelling chaos and violence in occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank as bloodshed surges between Israel and Palestinians.

The condemnation came at the end of a three-way summit on Monday in the northern Egyptian city of El Alamein that brought together Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sissi, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The three accused Israel of a number of violations against Palestinians, including what they said were incursions by Israeli soldiers at a contested holy site in occupied East Jerusalem and illegally withholding Palestinian money.

Israel’s government did not immediately respond to the statement from the summit.

Deadliest violence

The past months have seen one of the deadliest periods in years in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More than 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to a tally by The Associated Press. Palestinians have killed 29 people on the Israeli side during that time.

Israel's new far-right government, formed last December, has adopted a hard-line approach to the Palestinians.

In January, it decided to withhold $39 million from the Palestinian Authority and transfer the funds instead to a compensation programme for the families of Israeli victims of Palestinian attacks.

During violent flare-ups, Egypt, which was the first Arab country to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, has regularly acted as a peace broker between the two sides.

Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.