During the meeting, held at the headquarters of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Shoukry urged to consolidate a permanent truce in the Palestinian territories by putting an end to actions that worsen tensions and lead to clashes.

The diplomat stressed the importance of taking into account the sensitivity of everything related to eastern Jerusalem, the Al Aqsa mosque and other sacred Christian and Muslim places, Ahmed Hafez, official spokesman, reported.

Egypt also championed the much-needed reactivation of the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, based on ‘serious, constructive and urgent’ negotiations, by refraining from adopting unilateral measures that will hinder it.

On Saturday, an Egyptian delegation headed by Abbas Kamel, General Intelligence Service chief, left for Tel Aviv to meet Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu.

According to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s guidelines, the mediating delegation will address the permanent cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, the reconstruction of this coastal enclave and a comprehensive de-escalation in the West Bank, the Egyptian daily Ahram reported on Sunday.

mh/aph/ga/lcp