Israeli, Palestinian politicians meet in Jordan's capital

Senior Israeli and Palestinian officials met secretly in the Jordanian capital Amman last week, according to Israeli sources.

Chief Palestinian negotiator and member of the Palestinian Parliament Saeb Erekat met with Israeli Interior Minister and Vice-Prime Minister Silvan Shalom last Tuesday, Israeli sources told the Hebrew-language Israeli news website Walla! News.

This was a "trust-building step" between the two sides, according to the sources.

This was a "trust-building step" between the two sides, sources said.

There have reportedly been several secret meetings between Israeli officials and Palestinian negotiators, intended to break the current deadlock in the peace process, since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was reelected in March 2015.

However, details of the discussions have been made public.
Tension between Israel and the Palestinians is high as Israel announced at the end of last week it was planning to build around 1,000 new housing units of the West Bank, ending a year-long unofficial settlement freeze.

Two Palestinians were also killed by the Israeli army last week in separate incidents.

Last Thursday, UN Mideast envoy Nickolay Mladenov warned the Security Council that Israel and the Palestinians were now further apart than ever from achieving peace.

He said there was a "growing perception that the two-state solution is on life support, slowly dying a death 'by a thousand cuts'."