UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is reportedly slated to visit Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv next week for a two-day round of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
The visit, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday next week, will take him to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramallah and the Gaza Strip, Secretary-General’s official spokesman, Estefan Dogrec, said in a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York.
The visit comes amid renewed international diplomatic efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks stalled since 2014.
Ban Ki-moon is slated to pay a special visit to the Gaza Strip during his visit in order to inspect from up close restrictions on free movement of the Palestinians at border crossings controlled by Egyptian and Israeli parties.
Ban Ki-moon popped in the Gaza Strip in October 2014 for a short stopover aimed at keeping tabs on the damage inflicted by the Israeli offensive on the besieged coastal enclave. An Israeli military offensive on Gaza in 2014 took away the lives of 2,323 Palestinians and ruined 12,000 civilian homes. The situation has gone far worse due to the tough Israeli blockade imposed on the territory for the 10th year running.
