Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with top US diplomat Antony Blinken on Sunday, where he demanded an immediate Israeli ceasefire. This meeting occurred as Gaza’s health ministry reported the tragic loss of many lives in an overnight strike on a refugee camp.
Antony Blinken, who has consistently opposed the idea of an Israeli ceasefire due to concerns about it benefiting Hamas, made an unannounced visit to the occupied West Bank. His visit aimed to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from spreading further in the region.
During Blinken’s visit to Ramallah, people in the region were desperately searching through the rubble for survivors or victims in the Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza.
Saeed al-Nejma, a resident, described the harrowing experience: “All night, I and other men were trying to retrieve the deceased from the rubble. We found children, dismembered bodies, and torn flesh.” He also mentioned that the blast had struck his neighborhood while he and his family were asleep in their single-story house.
A spokesman for the health ministry in Gaza, which is under the control of Hamas, reported that the Israeli military had targeted the camp overnight, resulting in the tragic loss of at least 47 lives.
In a separate incident, the health ministry reported that 21 Palestinians from a single family, including women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza overnight.
In a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas strongly urged an immediate ceasefire from Israel. He expressed deep concern over the ongoing conflict, saying, “We demand that you put an end to these atrocities right away.”
Abbas emphasized the severity of the situation, describing it as a “genocidal and destructive war” that is causing immense suffering to the Palestinian people in Gaza, with no respect for international law. These sentiments were quoted by the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Foreign ministers from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates also met with Blinken in Amman, advocating for the United States to use its influence to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire.
Pope Francis has also joined the call for peace, urging, “In the name of God, stop,” and emphasizing the urgent need for humanitarian aid and assistance for the injured to alleviate the dire situation in Gaza. However, Blinken has expressed concerns that a ceasefire might enable Hamas to regroup and resume attacks. Instead, the United States is pushing for localized pauses in the fighting to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid and allow people to evacuate the densely populated Gaza Strip.
According to spokesperson Matthew Miller, “The Secretary reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to delivering life-saving humanitarian assistance and restoring essential services in Gaza.”
