After visiting the occupied West Bank on Sunday, US top diplomat Antony Blinken said the Palestinian Authority (PA) should be crucial to the Gaza strip's future, a US source said. Blinken is touring the region amid rising tensions over Israel's war with Hamas.
On his second visit to the West Bank since Palestinian Hamas fighters killed 1,400 people and kidnapped more than 240 others on October 7, Blinken met PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah through Israeli roadblocks.
After failing to persuade Israel to take shorter breaks a day earlier, Secretary of State Blinken rejected Arab calls for a ceasefire on Saturday as Israel continued an air campaign that Gaza health officials say has killed nearly 9,500 Palestinians.
Blinken is also trying to initiate negotiations on how Gaza should be governed once Israel destroys Hamas, which it says it wants.
Blinken urged Mahmoud Abbas that the PA "should play a central role in what comes next in Gaza," a senior State Department official told reporters traveling with him.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said that Mahmoud Abbas informed Blinken that Gaza is "an integral part" of the state Palestinians want, suggesting that any PA role in running Gaza must be part of a larger settlement of the decades-old conflict.
"We will fully assume our responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution that includes all of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip," Mahmoud Abbas was reported by WAFA.
The two met for an hour without interviews.
According Palestinian spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Mahmoud Abbas instructed Blinken to allow aid into Gaza and a ceasefire immediately.
Blinken said the US will send aid into Gaza and restore key services, State Department spokeswoman Matthew Miller said in a meeting summary.
"The Secretary also expressed the commitment of the United States to working toward the realization of the Palestinians' legitimate aspirations for the establishment of a Palestinian state," added Miller.
Problematic authority
Blinken believes a "effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority" should oversee the strip, but other countries and international agencies may provide security and governance in the interim.
Mahmoud Abbas' PA, which governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank with limited autonomy, has lost support due to fraud, inefficiency, and unpopular security collaboration with Israel. Who will succeed Hamas opponent Mahmoud Abbas, 87, who is ailing?
After meeting with Blinken on Saturday, Egypt and Jordan's foreign ministers urged for an urgent truce to address Gaza's 2.3 million residents' humanitarian situation and said it was premature to discuss the strip's future.
Blinken believes a ceasefire would merely allow Hamas to regroup, but he wants Israel to agree to location-specific pauses to distribute relief in Gaza.
Hamas firmly controls Gaza, but the West Bank is a patchwork of hillside cities, Israeli settlements, and army checkpoints that divide Palestinian villages.
Since the war began, the UN has reported over 170 Jewish settler attacks on Palestinians, bringing violence to a 15-year high.
The senior State Department official said Blinken thanked Mahmoud Abbas for calming West Bank tensions and challenged Israeli leaders for accountability.
