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US secretary of state Antony Blinken told the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas that the US saw the PA as “playing a central role” in any post-Hamas government in Gaza, a US official said.
The official, who briefed reporters travelling with Blinken, was speaking on Sunday after the US’s top diplomat held talks with Abbas in the occupied West Bank.
But Abbas said the PA would only assume power in Gaza, which Hamas has controlled since 2007, as part of a “comprehensive political solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the Palestinians’ official Wafa news agency.
Blinken, who also held meetings in Tel Aviv and the Jordanian capital Amman in recent days, is on his second trip to the region since Israel declared war on Hamas.
His tour came as the Arab world and some western capitals pressed for a ceasefire — a demand Israel and the US have rejected.
Wafa said Abbas used the meeting with Blinken to call for an “immediate halt to the devastating Israeli war on Gaza” and to push for the “swift provision of humanitarian aid, including medical supplies, food, water, electricity and fuel” to the enclave.
The meeting came as Palestinian officials in Gaza accused Israel of launching an air strike on a refugee camp that they said killed dozens of people.
Gazan health officials say 9,770 people have been killed in the war that was unleashed by Israel in response to the October 7 rampage by the militant group Hamas. That attack killed 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials, and more than 240 others were taken hostage.
After an aerial bombardment of Hamas-run Gaza, Israel Defense Forces entered the territory late last month and have now encircled Gaza City, Hamas’s main base. Fierce street battles have been reported between IDF troops and Hamas militants.
Aid agencies have expressed mounting concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is experiencing a dire shortage of food, drinking water, medicines and fuel. A trickle of aid is flowing through the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, but NGOs operating in the strip say it is not nearly enough.
Catherine Colonna, French foreign minister, said after meeting the emir of Qatar that the two had agreed on the need for a ceasefire. “An immediate humanitarian truce, lasting and sustained, is absolutely necessary and must be able to lead to a ceasefire,” she said. Her words echoed calls over the weekend from officials in Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates also calling for a ceasefire.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to crush Hamas and flatly ruled out even a temporary ceasefire until all hostages released. The US is also against a ceasefire, saying it would merely allow Hamas to regroup and launch further attacks.
Blinken has instead proposed localised “humanitarian pauses” that would make it easier to bring aid into Gaza and get foreign nationals out.
On Sunday Blinken told Abbas the US was committed to getting aid in and restoring essential services, according to a readout from a state department spokesperson.
The talks come as US president Joe Biden’s administration turns its attention to what will happen to Gaza — and who will run it — if Israel achieves its war aim of dismantling Hamas.
One idea being discussed in Washington is a possible interim government run by Arab states or the UN before “an effective and revitalised Palestinian Authority” takes over governance.
But the PA is seen by many Palestinians as weak and corrupt, lacking the necessary credibility to govern the strip.
Despite that, Blinken was keen to convey to Abbas that the US wanted to see a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict once the war was over.
“The secretary also expressed the commitment of the US to working towards the realisation of the Palestinians’ legitimate aspirations for the establishment of a Palestinian state,” the state department spokesperson said.
Hours before Blinken arrived in Ramallah, Wafa said Israeli warplanes had attacked Gaza’s Al-Maghazi refugee camp. Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesperson for the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, said more than 30 people had been killed.
The IDF did not immediately comment. Late last month, Israel carried out a strike on Gaza’s largest refugee camp, Jabalia, which it said killed a senior Hamas commander and which officials in the enclave said also killed dozens of civilians.
Meanwhile, Amihai Eliyahu, a far-right minister in Netanyahu’s government, was suspended from cabinet meetings “until further notice” after he appeared to suggest that Israel should drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza. Asked in an interview with radio channel Kol BaRama if Israel should deploy nuclear weapons, Eliyahu said: “That’s one way”.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
