JERUSALEM: Israel’s finance minister has met the Palestinian prime minister, Israeli officials said on Thursday, in a rare visit by an Israeli Cabinet member to the occupied West Bank as part of a US peace push.
Israel’s security Cabinet agreed just before US President Donald Trump’s visit to Jerusalem and the West Bank May 22-23 on a series of measures aimed at building confidence in relations with the Palestinians.
Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who heads a center-right party in Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, went to Ramallah late on Wednesday to present the proposals to Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, the officials said.
The measures include opening the Allenby Bridge border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan 24 hours a day, an increased number of building permits for Palestinians living in Area C of the West Bank, and further development of industrial zones near the West Bank cities of Jenin and Hebron.
Under interim peace deals between Israel and the Palestinians, Area C — which comprises 60 percent of the occupied West Bank — is territory in which Israel maintains full security and civil control.
Youssef Al-Mahmoud, a Palestinian government spokesman, said Hamdallah told Kahlon that economic measures cannot serve as a substitute for a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency.
The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, but US-brokered peace talks collapsed three years ago.
An Israeli defense official said she believed Kahlon’s visit marked the first time an Israeli Cabinet minister had held an official meeting in Ramallah since 2014.
“Civil-economic steps that Israel would promote with regard to the Palestinian Authority were presented at the meeting, following the visit of the US president,” an official Israeli statement said.
Trump has vowed to push for a historic peace deal between the sides, though he has not presented any details on how he plans to revive negotiations.
On his visit to the region, he met separately with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Trump described both leaders as “reaching for peace.” Many analysts, however, see little prospect of a breakthrough, citing years of deadlock over issues such as the status of Jerusalem and Israeli settlement building, as well as little diplomatic experience in the new US administration.
Israeli finance minister meets with Palestinian PM in West Bank
Israeli finance minister meets with Palestinian PM in West Bank
Latest US sanctions target Houthi funding networks, Treasury says
- Since 2023, the Houthis have launched numerous assaults on vessels in the Red Sea that they deem to be linked with Israel
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration issued fresh sanctions on Friday further targeting the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and the transfer of oil products, weapons and other so-called dual-use equipment that it said helped fund the group.
The action targets 21 individuals and entities as well as one vessel, including some alleged front companies in Yemen, Oman and the UAE, the US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a statement.
“The Houthis threaten the United States by committing acts of terror and attacking commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement.
The move builds on previous Treasury action to pressure the Houthis “vast revenue generation and smuggling networks, which enable the group to sustain its capability to conduct destabilizing regional activities,” including the Red Sea attacks, the department added.
Since 2023, the Houthis have launched numerous assaults on vessels in the Red Sea that they deem to be linked with Israel in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war on Gaza.
Tehran’s regional sway has been weakened by Israel’s attacks on its proxies, including on the Houthis in Yemen. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Daphen Psaledakis; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
