Welcoming Abbas, as participants recorded the encounter on their cellphones, Netanyahu said of his attendance: “It’s something that I appreciate very much on behalf of our people and on behalf of us.”
But Abbas’s rare visit to the city, a short drive through Israeli military checkpoints from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, seemed unlikely to yield anything more than handshakes.
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have been frozen since 2014 and Netanyahu and Abbas, deeply divided over Jewish settlement on land Palestinians seek for a state and other issues, have not held face-to-face talks since 2010.
Abbas was given a front-row seat between European Council President Donald Tusk and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Obama briefly greeted the Palestinian leader with a kiss on each cheek before walking down the line to stand next to Netanyahu.
Israeli forces killed at least seven Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the past day, including...
The Israeli military suspended a battalion of reservist soldiers on Monday, days after it detained a...
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held talks with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa during an official visit to...
Syrians in Damascus took to the streets after Friday prayers, staging pro-Palestine protests against Israel’s latest...
