Palestinian president calls on US' Blinken to stop Israeli war on Gaza immediately

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday called on the United States to move to immediately stop Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

Meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the presidential headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he is paying an unannunced visit, Abbas "demanded an immediate cessation of the devastating war, and the acceleration of the provision of humanitarian aid, including medical, food, water, electricity, and fuel, to the Gaza Strip,” according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

“We meet again in extremely difficult circumstances, and there are no words to describe the war of genocide and destruction to which our Palestinian people are being subjected to in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli war machine, without regard for the rules of international law,” Abbas said.

The president also warned against any plan to displace the Palestinian people outside Gaza, the West Bank, or Jerusalem, saying: "We categorically reject that."

He said that what is happening in the West Bank and Jerusalem is no less horrific in terms of "murder and attacks on land, people and holy sites, at the hands of the occupation forces and terrorist settlers.”

Abbas held Israel fully responsible for what is happening.

“Military solutions will not bring security to Israel,” he said, adding: “We demand that you stop them from committing these crimes immediately.”

“Security and peace are achieved by ending the Israeli occupation of the land of the state of Palestine, with its capital, East Jerusalem, on the 1967 borders,” Abbas added.

He also emphasized that “the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the state of Palestine, and we will bear our full responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution for both the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip."

On Saturday, Blinken met with the foreign ministers of Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, and the secretary general of the Executive Committee of the PLO, Hussein Al-Sheikh, in the Jordanian capital, Amman, after visiting Israel.

At a press conference following the meeting, Blinken reiterated that Washington opposes a cease-fire, claiming that Hamas would benefit from it.

President Joe Biden, however, has called for what he calls “humanitarian pauses.”

Last week the Israeli army expanded its air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has faced relentless airstrikes since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.

The death toll as a result of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7 is 9,770, including 4,800 children, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

Nearly 1,540 Israelis have been killed.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi​​​​​​​