© Voice of Russia
Kerry will possibly hold meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah over Monday and Tuesday, a senior US official said in France, without elaborating.
The US peace efforts are teetering after Israel refused to free a group of 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners under an agreement which brought the sides back to the negotiating table in July 2013.
Kerry's arrival in Tel Aviv is likely to coincide with a meeting of the Palestinian leadership called by president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah at 1600 GMT to discuss the latest standoff.
Furious Palestinian officials have warned that unless Israel changes its stance on the prisoner releases it could signal the end of the talks.
News of Kerry's unscheduled trip was confirmed by US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
"After consulting with his team, Secretary Kerry decided it would be productive to return to the region," she told reporters in Paris shortly before departing for Tel Aviv.
"Our negotiating team has been working with both parties on the ground to help them agree on a path forward, and Secretary Kerry has kept in close touch with his counterparts by phone."
With the talks teetering on the brink of collapse, Washington has been fighting an uphill battle to coax the two sides into accepting a framework proposal which would extend the negotiations beyond April 29 to the end of the year.
But the question of extending the talks has become intricately tied up with the fate of a group of the 26 prisoners.
Just a day ahead of the expected releases, Israel said it would not free detainees convicted of deadly nationalist attacks unless the Palestinians would commit to extending the negotiations.
But the Palestinians say they will not even discuss any extension of the negotiating period unless Israel frees the prisoners.
The impasse has triggered "intense" US efforts to resolve the dispute, with Kerry speaking with both sides earlier on Monday.
Israel presents new proposal
© AFP/Baz Ratner
And he said any deal to extend the negotiations would have to be put to the cabinet.
Late on Sunday, a Palestinian official told AFP Israel had presented Abbas with a draft agreement to extend the talks, saying the Palestinian leader was to examine it overnight. He did not say what the proposal contained.
"Now the Palestinians need to reply if they are willing to continue negotiations," an Israeli official told AFP, without giving further details.
Speaking in Paris on Sunday, Kerry told reporters the US would reserve judgement on the situation, but said the time to make decisions was at hand.
"We'll see where we are tomorrow (Monday) when some judgements have to be made," he said.
It will be Kerry's first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories since early January, although he has held face-to-face meetings with both Netanyahu and Abbas in Europe and the United States.
Last week, the US diplomat made a flying visit to Jordan for separate talks with Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II.
Under a deal that relaunched peace talks last July, Israel agreed to release 104 prisoners held since before the 1993 Oslo peace accords in exchange for the Palestinians freezing all efforts to seek further international recognition.
So far, Israel has freed 78 of them in three batches, and the last group -- which includes 14 Arab Israelis jailed for nationalist attacks -- was to have been released on March 29.
Meanwhile, Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog held talks in Jordan with King Abdullah focused on the peace process, a palace statement said.
Source: Agence France-Presse
Reader Comments
to our Newsletter