KELLY: And the wider context - just in the moments we have left, Daniel - is this comes after the Trump administration made a decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moved the embassy to Jerusalem.
The move, argued State Department deputy spokesperson Robert Palladino in a statement on Sunday, is "to increase the efficiency and effectiveness". "The administration remains fully committed to efforts to achieve a lasting and comprehensive peace that offers a brighter future to Israel and the Palestinians".
What had functioned as the United States mission to the Palestinians since the 1990s is now officially known as the Palestinian Affairs Unit.
We have all heard a lot about the U.S. Embassy because it moved to Jerusalem past year, and that was big news.
USA -sponsored talks between the Palestinians and Israel collapsed in 2014 over the latter's refusal to halt settlement building in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
No, the Consulate (the de facto United States mission to Palestine) will NOT "merge" with the Embassy.
The US Consulate in Jerusalem has, for decades, acted as a de facto embassy for Palestinians from Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank, providing them with US visa and passport services, and also as the main channel of communication between the US administration and the Palestinian leadership.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party condemned the "hideous crime" and held Israel accountable for it, accusing the Israeli government of "using Palestinian blood as material for bargaining in Israeli electoral campaigning". "It is an act of political assault on Palestinian rights and identity and a negation of the consulate's historic status and function, dating back almost two hundred years".
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Ross said that the U.S. administration needed to take steps "to reach out to Palestinians if it is to have any hope for its plan".
The army said security forces fired at three assailants, "neutralising two of them and lightly injuring a third", while police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said two of the Palestinians were killed.
Palestinian leaders call it an attempt to blackmail them into accepting a plan that they believe will destroy their hopes for independent statehood.
Jake Walles, a former consul general in Jerusalem, called the closure "a sad end to an important USA diplomatic mission".
The Palestinian Authority has preemptively rejected the plan, accusing the US of bias toward Israel.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest disputes between Israel and the Palestinians.
Critics also said that closing the consulate will make it more hard for USA diplomats in the region to understand developments in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.
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