Posted on 11/06/23
| News Source: FOX45
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought his diplomatic push on the Israel-Hamas war to the West Bank on Sunday, meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as part of an intensifying Biden administration drive to reduce the suffering of Gaza's civilians under Israeli bombardment and to start to sketch out a post-conflict scenario for the territory.
Blinken traveled through the West Bank city of Ramallah in an armored motorcade and under tight security. The trip came on the third day of an urgent new round of American diplomacy that is seeking to limit the destabilizing regional fallout from Israel's war with Gaza's ruling Hamas terrorists.
The Biden administration, while remaining the strongest backer of Israel's military response to Hamas' attacks on Oct. 7, is increasingly seeking to use its influence with Israel to try to temper the effect of Israel's weeks of complete siege and near round-the-clock air, ground and sea assaults in Gaza, home to 2.3 million civilians.
Blinken later flew to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as American forces in the region face a surge of attacks by Iranian-allied militias in Iraq and elsewhere. U.S. forces shot down another one-way attack drone Sunday that was targeting American and coalition troops near their base in neighboring Syria, a U.S. official said.
Blinken's meeting with Abbas in the West Bank came only hours after Israeli planes bombed a refugee camp in Gaza, killing at least 40 people according to health officials in Gaza.
Despite the secrecy and the U.S. State Department's refusal to confirm Blinken's West Bank trip until after he had left the Palestinian territory, Palestinians turned out to protest U.S. support for Israel's war as word of his arrival spread in the West Bank. Demonstrators held signs showing dripping blood and with messages that included, "Blinken blood is on your hands."
Neither Blinken nor Abbas spoke as they greeted each other in front of cameras and their meeting ended without any public comment.
The Palestinian Authority administers semiautonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It has not been a factor in the Gaza Strip since 2007, when Hamas seized control after winning in elections there a year earlier.
A senior American official traveling with Blinken stressed what the official said was the U.S. commitment to pressing Israel to protect civilians in Gaza, increase humanitarian aid supplies and rein in and punish surging violence by extremist Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.
At least 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the start of the war, mainly during violent protests and gun battles during arrest raids.