Washington is sending senior diplomat Hady Amr to Israel in its most significant effort thus far to help de-escalate the fighting with Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Mr Amr, deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli and Palestinian affairs, will be making his first trip to Israel on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced at a press briefing.
US sources told The National the trip had initially been planned for next week but was moved up due to the fighting.
President Joe Biden’s administration is leaning on Egypt and Jordan to help broker a truce before Eid on Thursday, the sources said.
But those hopes have dimmed amid an intense exchange of air strikes and rocket attacks between Israel and Hamas. At least 56 Palestinians and six Israelis have been killed.
Former US envoy to the region Martin Indyk called the trip “necessary and important”.
“It is a sign of engagement by the Biden administration. Mr Amr cannot be a mediator at this stage in the conflict but he can engage with both sides and advise Washington on possible ways to end the fighting,” Mr Indyk, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The National.
Sarah Yerkes of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said Mr Amr’s trip is welcome news but Washington alone can’t bring about a breakthrough.
“It is a good move by the US to send Hady Amr, who has a history of working with both sides during the Obama administration,” Ms Yerkes, a former State Department official, told The National.
Mr Amr served as deputy special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during the second term of former president Barack Obama.
His trip comes amid criticism over the Biden administration’s slow reaction to the Jerusalem crisis, and Mr Biden has yet to comment on the situation.
“The US had been rightly criticised for their tepid response to the escalating crisis and getting their hands in this, through Mr Amr as a mediator, shows both sides that Washington is paying attention and not sitting on the sidelines,” Ms Yerkes argued.
But she described US leverage as constrained, given that it has no direct channel to Hamas.
“There is not likely much Mr Amr will be able to bring to the table. Hamas has very little to lose by continuing their aggression and the US is not likely to abandon its support for Israel,” Ms Yerkes said.
Washington has been pressuring Cairo to help arrange a ceasefire. On Tuesday, the White House said that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had spoken with his Egyptian counterpart, Abbas Kamel.
But a quick end to the fighting before Eid is unrealistic, diplomatic sources said, given the intensity of the fighting, now at its worst level in seven years.
Agency ReportÂ
