The UAE on Monday requested a UN Security Council meeting to discuss the worsening violence in the occupied Palestinian territories. UN diplomats told <i>The National </i>that the meeting would take place at 3pm in New York on Tuesday and would feature Norwegian diplomat Tor Wennesland, the UN special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process. In a statement issued on Monday, Lana Nusseibeh, UAE's Ambassador to the UN, said she is "deeply concerned" about the escalating violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and called for the UN Security Council meeting to address it "immediately." "These are not isolated incidents—they’re part of a pattern of violence and unilateral actions that are costing lives and hampering the prospects for a two-State solution," she said. On Monday, Mr Wennesland called for "all perpetrators of violence" to be held "accountable." "There can be no justification for terrorism, nor for arson and acts of revenge against civilians," he said. Israel on Monday sent extra troops to the occupied West Bank after a Palestinian gunman shot dead two Israelis. That came after dozens of Jewish settlers torched Palestinian homes and cars in Hawara. Israeli and Palestinian officials had pledged to de-escalate tensions at a <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/2023/02/27/israeli-settlers-run-riot-through-occupied-west-bank-town-amid-de-escalation-talks/" target="_blank">summit in the Red Sea resort of Aqaba in Jordan</a> on Sunday. While the summit was taking place, a Palestinian gunman opened fire at a junction in Hawara, killing two Israeli settlers in retaliation for an Israeli raid in the northern city of Nablus the week before, which killed 11 Palestinians. Although neither side indicated that the violence would end soon, a statement after the meeting said they "reaffirmed the necessity of committing to de-escalation on the ground and to prevent further violence". Israel agreed on Sunday to curb its settlement activity in occupied <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/2023/02/26/israeli-and-palestinian-security-officials-to-meet-in-jordan-after-west-bank-violence/">Palestinian territory</a> for four months and to stop authorisation of outposts for six months. Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, later said they had agreed to no such conditions. It was the first high-level meeting between Israel and the Palestinians since the ascendancy of a far-right government to power in Israel.
