Antony Blinken meets Palestine prez, discusses post-war reforms

TEL AVIV: United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday about reforming the Palestinian self-rule government, as part of US efforts to rally the region behind postwar plans for Gaza that also include concrete steps toward a Palestinian state.

Blinken says he has secured commitments from multiple countries in the region to assist with rebuilding and governing Gaza after Israel's war against Hamas, and that wider Israeli-Arab normalization is still possible, but only if there is "a pathway to a Palestinian state."

In their meeting on Wednesday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Blinken told Abbas that the US supports "tangible steps towards the creation of a Palestinian state," according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.


He said the two discussed administrative reform.

The vision outlined by Blinken faces serious obstacles. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government is adamantly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and the autocratic, Western-backed Palestinian leadership, whose forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas took over in 2007, lacks legitimacy in the view of many Palestinians. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in ight, fueling a wider conflict.

PRESSURES BOTH SIDES
On his fourth visit to the region since the war began three months ago, Blinken has met in recent days with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. He says they are open to contributing to postwar plans in return for progress on creating a Palestinian state.

The Saudi Ambassador to the UK went even further on Tuesday, a landmark normalisation agreement with Israel, but that it must include "nothing less than an independent state of Palestine." "One doesn't come without the other," Prince Khalid bin Bandar said.

After meeting with Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials on Tuesday, Blinken delivered a stark message, saying Israel must stop undercutting the Palestinians' ability to govern themselves with its expansion of settlements, home demolitions and evictions in the West Bank.

HEAVY FIGHTING IN CENTER AND SOUTH
An airstrike late Tuesday hit a four-story house west of the southernmost city of Rafah, killing at least 14 people and wounding at least 20 others, including women and children, health officials said. Associated Press reporters saw the dead and wounded being brought into nearby hospitals.

Jaber Abu Hamed, who fled his home in Gaza City last month and is sheltering near the main hospital in Khan Younis, said he heard constant gunfire and explosions. "The ambulance sirens didn't stop," he said.