US top diplomat Antony Blinken on Wednesday, January 10, said Mahmud Abbas was committed to reforming the Palestinian Authority to potentially reunite war-torn Gaza and the occupied West Bank under its leadership.
Blinken laid out Gaza's possible future after meeting Palestinian president Abbas in Ramallah and Bahrain's King Hamad in his fourth Middle East tour aimed at preventing the Israel-Hamas war from escalating.
The bloodiest-ever Gaza war has raged since the unprecedented Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7 and killed more than 23,000 people in the besieged Palestinian territory, according to its health ministry.
Abbas raised with Blinken the need "to stop the Israeli aggression against Palestinian people" in Hamas-ruled Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where deadly unrest has also surged, said the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Blinken told Abbas that Washington supports "tangible steps" towards the creation of a Palestinian state – a long-term goal that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-right government has opposed. Blinken reiterated the US position that a Palestinian state must stand alongside Israel, "with both living in peace and security", said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
As Blinken arrived under tight security at Abbas's headquarters in Ramallah, protesters held up signs reading "Stop the genocide", "Free Palestine" and "Blinken out". Some scuffled with Palestinian security forces in riot gear.
In Bahrain, Blinken said Abbas was "committed" to reforming the Palestinian Authority "so that it can effectively take responsibility for Gaza, so that Gaza and the West Bank can be reunited under a Palestinian leadership".
Washington sees a future in Gaza for the PA, whose ruling Fatah faction is a Hamas rival. But Netanyahu has long sought to weaken the semi-autonomous body.
On Wednesday evening, Netanyahu said in televised remarks that "Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population." "Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian population, and we are doing so in full compliance with international law," he said, speaking in English.
Hamas, an Islamist movement designated as "terrorist" by the United States and the European Union, seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, ousting Abbas's Fatah party, with which it had shared power after sweeping parliamentary elections.
Hamas's Qatar-based chief Ismail Haniyeh said last week he was "open to the idea" of a single Palestinian administration in Gaza and the West Bank.
A post-war plan outlined by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant envisions local "civil committees" governing Gaza after Israel has dismantled Hamas.