Onward journey to Turkey
Abbas meets Blinken and calls for immediate ceasefire
November 5th, 2023, 1:43 p.m
On his tour of the Middle East, US Secretary of State Blinken will also visit the West Bank. At the surprise meeting with Palestinian President Abbas, the differences become particularly clear.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip at a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ramallah. Abbas also spoke out in favor of allowing more aid supplies and fuel into the coastal strip, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Abbas spoke of a “genocide” by Israel against the residents of the Gaza Strip.
Israel rejects these allegations and emphasizes that it only attacks targets of the Islamist Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s goal is to completely destroy Hamas’ military capabilities after the October 7 massacre. Abbas also warned against the expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, the West Bank or Jerusalem. Peace and security can only be achieved by “ending the Israeli occupation.” No solution to this point has been found in diplomatic negotiations for decades.
According to Blinken’s spokesman Matthew Miller, the two also “talked about the need to stop extremist violence against Palestinians” in the West Bank. Since the beginning of the war, violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has also escalated. Since then, more than 150 Palestinians have been killed in the Palestinian territory by the Israeli army or extremist Israeli settlers, according to Palestinian sources.
Just a ceasefire, not a ceasefire
Abbas expressed willingness to take “full responsibility” for the Gaza Strip, but only as part of a “package” with a comprehensive political solution also for the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim these areas for their own state.
Blinken has advocated for Abbas’s Palestinian Authority to take back control of the Gaza Strip. However, this vision is viewed by most members of the current government in Israel as a threat to the Jewish state and is therefore rejected. In 2007, Hamas violently seized sole control of the Gaza Strip and expelled Abbas’ Fatah from there.
Blinken advocates for a temporary humanitarian ceasefire but rejects a ceasefire. This would only lead to Hamas staying in power and repeating the October 7 massacre, he said on Saturday in Amman.
Blinken will travel to Turkey on Sunday evening. There he wanted to talk, among other things, about possible paths to a “durable and sustainable peace in the Middle East,” which included “the establishment of a Palestinian state,” the US State Department said.