Israeli President Reuven Rivlin met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels to thank the military alliance organization for allowing Israel to open an official mission at NATO’s headquarters.

The Israeli mission “will help Israel and will help NATO – it will help us share best practices and information,” Rivlin said, citing the threat of terrorism and instability facing Israel, Europe, and countries worldwide.

“This lack of stability poses a danger to us all, and even to NATO itself, and makes our close cooperation not just important but essential,” Rivlin said.

“For more than twenty years, Israel has been a very active NATO partner through the Mediterranean Dialogue, the only security forum that brings together NATO Allies with Israel and Arab countries,” Stoltenberg said. “It is vital that countries that share the same values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law must stand united against hate and against terrorism.”

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini said that the EU was in its final stages of completing a recommendation report for the Quartet on a final arrangement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Quartet comprises the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia.

“We are now in the last phase of preparation of this report that will include also important recommendations to the parties,” said Mogherini. “The Member States shared the views that were presented to them, the basic content of the report as it stands now and expressed the wish to see it published in the coming days and to engage with the parties, with Palestinians and Israelis, and their leaderships, on the basis of that report.”

“I will discuss this further later this week with President Abbas and President Rivlin who will visit Brussels later this week,” she added.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced that overnight, Israeli forces destroyed the house of Bashar Massalha, the terrorist who carried out an attack in Jaffa on March 8 of this year, killing American tourist Taylor Force and injuring ten others.

Massalha’s house was in the village of Kafr Haja, located in Samaria near the Palestinian city of Nablus.

Gush Etzion Junction is blocked following a shooting in the area. Road 60 between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem is blocked. Security forces are on site and no casualties have been reported.

This is a developing story. 

Efforts are underway to arrange a meeting between Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Brussels this week, according to a report Monday evening on Israeli Channel 10.

According to the report the efforts are mainly done by non-governmental sources, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is aware of the meeting and supports it.