Germany's Baerbock holds talks in Israel and West Bank

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is in Israel on Friday after stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

The top German diplomat is in the Middle East to promote efforts to advance a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, as well as to increase humanitarian aid into war-ravaged Gaza.

After 11 months of fighting, the Biden administration said this week it believes that a ceasefire deal remains within reach.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that troops stay in a buffer zone in Gaza along the border with Egypt - a demand that has proved the latest stumbling block to an agreement.

Baerbock met with her counterpart Israel Katz in Tel Aviv on Friday morning and was set to later visit Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. A meeting with Netanyahu was not planned.

She will then head to the Israeli-occupied West Bank to meet with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa in Ramallah.

Baerbock has said that she believes the Palestinian Authority could play an important role in a post-war administration in Gaza.

Along with the ceasefire negotiations, her talks were expected to touch on the rash of violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

She said on Thursday in Amman that Israel was "the occupying power in the West Bank and is obliged under the Geneva Convention to uphold law and order rather than jeopardize it."

"This explicitly includes protecting the population from attacks by violent, radical settlers," she said.