The Biden administration, whereas remaining the strongest backer of Israel’s army response to Hamas’ assaults on October 7, is more and more looking for to make use of its affect with Israel to attempt to mood the impact of Israel’s weeks of full siege and close to round the clock air, floor and sea assaults in Gaza, residence to 2.3 million civilians.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s assembly with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas within the West Financial institution got here on the identical day that Israeli planes bombed two refugee camps in Gaza, together with at Maghazi, killing at the very least 53 folks, based on well being officers in Gaza. An Related Press reporter noticed the useless our bodies of eight kids introduced into a close-by Gaza hospital after a type of strikes.
As phrase unfold of Blinken’s arrival in Ramallah, Palestinians turned out to protest US assist for Israel’s warfare. Demonstrators held indicators displaying dripping blood and with messages that included, “Blinken blood is in your arms.”
Neither Blinken nor Abbas spoke as they greeted one another in entrance of cameras and their assembly ended with none public remark.
The Palestinian Authority administers semiautonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution. It has not been an element within the Gaza Strip since 2007, when Hamas seized management after profitable in elections there a 12 months earlier. Abbas himself is unpopular amongst Palestinians.
Blinken mentioned in Baghdad that the Palestinian Authority “is enjoying an important function proper now within the West Financial institution in making an attempt to maintain stability there. That’s massively necessary as a result of nobody needs one other entrance within the West Financial institution or wherever else, and so they’re actually stepping up beneath very troublesome circumstances to do the mandatory work.”
Loading
He mentioned that “what all of us agree” is that in shaping a future for Gaza, the West Financial institution and “finally” for a Palestinian state, “Palestinian voices must be on the centre of that. The Palestinian Authority is the consultant of these voices so it’s necessary that it play a number one function.”
Abbas, nonetheless, mentioned the Palestinian Authority would solely assume energy in Gaza as a part of a “complete political resolution” to the Israeli-Palestinian battle, based on the Palestinians’ official WAFA information company.
AP