Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, said he was ready to take responsibility for the Gaza Strip as part of a political solution and accused Israel of pursuing a policy of “genocide” in the enclave.
Abbas’ comments came during his meeting with senior US diplomat Antony Blinken in the West Bank on Sunday. The Palestinian leader said his government is ready to take full responsibility for the entire West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as part of a comprehensive diplomatic solution.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, but its long-term plans for leadership in the region remain unclear.
Mr. Blinken told Mr. Abbas that the United States was committed to providing aid to Gaza and restoring basic services there.
But the meeting between them in Ramallah seemed tense. And Mr Abbas said: “We meet again in the most difficult circumstances. I have no words to describe without any respect the genocidal war and destruction that our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have suffered at the hands of the Israeli military apparatus. for the principles of international law.”
The meeting comes amid fears that the war between Israel and Hamas could spread to the West Bank and beyond. The rising death toll in Gaza has led to growing international discontent. Tens of thousands of people from Washington to Berlin took to the streets on Saturday demanding an immediate ceasefire.
But the crisis has also exposed the limits of US diplomatic power, as Netanyahu’s government rejects US President Joe Biden’s calls for a pause in Israel’s brutal offensive.
Israel has rejected the idea of even a brief humanitarian pause, which Mr Blinken has also proposed during his current tour of the region, and reiterated its calls for civilians to leave the northern Gaza Strip.
“All Gazans are risking their lives,” said Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Next will be a meeting between Mr Blinken and Mr Abbas. New York Times U.S. officials have reportedly privately outlined several steps Israel could take to reduce civilian casualties during the military operation in the Gaza Strip, including using smaller bombs and improving intelligence to track Hamas leaders and infrastructure.
Egyptian sources said the reason for the fragile nature of humanitarian operations was that the evacuation of Gaza civilians through the Rafah crossing was suspended on Saturday following an Israeli attack on an ambulance on Friday.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iranian state media reported on Sunday. Tehran supports Hamas and applauds the October 7 massacre of 1,400 Israeli civilians.
However, the news from Tehran came a day after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah spoke in Lebanon, suggesting that his powerful Tehran-funded terror group had no intention of launching a full-scale attack on Israel.
However, tensions in the Muslim world remain high due to Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.
Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon as hundreds of people tried to storm an air base housing US troops during a pro-Palestinian rally on Sunday, hours before Blinken was due to be in Ankara for talks on the Gaza Strip.
Source: I News
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