Following an invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, US President Joe Biden will travel to Israel.
Both countries acknowledged on Sunday that Biden had accepted an invitation to visit Israel in the coming months, but neither party gave a specific date for the trip.
Bennett paid a visit to Biden in August 2021 in Washington, D.C.
Bennett’s office said in a statement that the two leaders spoke on Sunday, when Bennet updated Biden on efforts “to end the violence and incitement in Jerusalem.”
Since Israeli soldiers began incursions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on April 15, more than 300 Palestinians have been imprisoned and more than 200 have been injured.
Israeli authorities claimed they entered the area to help far-right Jews get access to the sacred place. Al-Qibli Mosque and the Dome of the Rock are located on a 14-hectare (35-acre) site.
Within the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Friday, Israeli police injured at least 57 Palestinians.
In the midst of rising tensions, US officials stated they have met with Israelis, Palestinians, and Arab representatives in the region.
The White House said in its statement that Biden “took note of ongoing efforts between Israeli and Palestinian officials to lower tensions and ensure a peaceful conclusion to the holy season of Ramadan”.
The US president also affirmed “his unwavering support for Israel and its defence needs”, and the two leaders had discussed “the threat posed by Iran and its proxies”, the White House added.
Bennett and Biden discussed, according to an Israeli government statement, Tehran’s demand for the removal of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from a US “terrorist” list.
Bennett was reported in the statement as adding, “I am convinced that President Biden… will not allow the Revolutionary Guards to be removed.”
Israel has also spoken out against US efforts to resurrect the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran, claiming that it lacks adequate safeguards to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear weapon. In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal, forcing it to fall apart.
