Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, will travel to Israel and the Palestinian Authority on the weekend for talks with leaders on both sides amid surging tensions, a spokesman said Friday, according to AFP.

Steinmeier aims to get a first-hand picture after recent clashes between Palestinian Arabs and Israeli forces, a situation in which the “peace process isn’t really advancing”, the spokesman told reporters.

He is due to meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and other officials in Ramallah on Saturday.

He is then scheduled to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and several other ministers, including Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, the following day, the spokesman added.

The visit comes amid continuing tensions in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, where Arabs have for months rioted and carried out rock and firebomb attacks, in what has come to be known as the “silent intifada”.

Earlier Friday it was reported that police have started enforcing a stricter crackdown on one of the key hotbeds of Arab terrorism, the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya.

Police reportedly closed three of the neighborhood’s four entrances with concrete blocks in an attempt to more closely monitor traffic in and out of the violent neighborhood.

Residents have appealed the Supreme Court over the closure, and the state is to file its response by next Wednesday.

Police have likewise set up a mobile headquarters at the entrance to Issawiya, backed-up by a surveillance balloon, with officers telling local leaders in Arabic that parents are responsible for keeping their children from rioting.

The stronger hand being seen in Issawiya comes as the IDF gave new orders this week allowing soldiers to open fire when Arab rioters shoot potentially lethal fireworks at them.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)