The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the French government that he is ready to meet Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas “anytime and anywhere,’’ in a response to Paris’s attempt to arrange such a meeting in the French capital.

According to Israeli daily Haaretz, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who met Israel’s Depuoty Prime Minister and Interior Minister Silvan Shalom during his visit last week in Paris, asked him whether Netanyahu would be prepared to meet Abbas.

According to Haaretz, Shalom, who is in charge of the negotiations with the Palestinians, replied “I think he would be happy to come.”

Fabius pushed the idea forward and formally approached both Netanyahu and Abbas. According to the Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu’s office has said he will meet Abbas “anytime and anywhere,” in the belief that such a meeting could “change the atmosphere and calm things down” following a month of violence which has seen twelve Israelis killed.

However, Fabius has yet to receive a reply from Abbas.

Netanyahu has repeatedly emphasised that he is prepared to restart talks with Abbas at any point. Two weeks ago, Netanyahu told a foreign press briefing that, “I’d be open to meeting with Arab leaders and the Palestinian leadership,” but that Abbas is “not willing to meet me.” He also offered to meet with Abbas without preconditions during his address to the United Nations General Assembly last month.

The French initiative comes as European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called on Netanyahu and Abbas to demonstrate their commitment to the two-state solution and show that ‘’it is real and not just fake" or "just an empty slogan," as she addressed the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

Mogherini, who has met with both Abbas and Netanyahu these last days, said she hopes to bring the Mideast Quartet (US, EU, UN and Russia) representatives to the region to establish trust-building steps.

Richard Lakin, who succumbed to his wounds on Tuesday morning, was a longtime believer in civil rights and marched with Martin Luther King in the 1960s.

Meanwhile, an October 13 Palestinian terror attack on a Jerusalem bus has claimed a third life. Jerusalem bus attack claims third life: 76-year-old Richard Lakin died of wounds sustained when two Palestinian men boarded the bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers.

It was one of the bloodiest attacks in recent violence. Lakin was originally from Newton, Massachusetts. His Facebook page displayed an image of Israeli and Arab kids hugging under the word "coexist."

Lakin was an elementary school principal in the U.S. and taught English in mixed classes of Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem after moving to Israel in 1984.