CAIRO, January 10. /TASS/. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas staunchly rejected the policy forcibly displacing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Palestine’s WAFA news agency reported.
According to the agency, the Palestinian president "warned of the danger of the measures taken by the Israeli occupation authorities aimed at displacing Palestinian people from the Gaza Strip or the West Bank." In this regard, Abbas emphasized "the complete rejection of the displacement of any Palestinian citizen, whether in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank," noting that Palestine "will not allow it to happen."
The parties discussed the need to speed up the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza and rebuild those medical facilities destroyed or affected by Israeli attacks. Abbas "reiterated that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the Palestinian state," adding that "it is not possible to accept or deal with the plans of the occupation authorities to separate it."
The Palestinian president advocated for the immediate cessation of hostilities in Gaza, so that "a political solution based on international legitimacy can be implemented, starting with the State of Palestine gaining full membership in the United Nations by a decision of the Security Council, and convening an international peace conference to end the Israeli occupation of the land of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, which achieves peace and security for all."
According to Al Jazeera, Blinken reaffirmed "the US’ support for precise measures to create the Palestinian State."
The Secretary of State is also said to have had a "fruitful discussion on administrative reforms with the Palestinian leader."
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.