US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah Sunday amid escalating settler violence in the West Bank following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The top US diplomat’s visit to Ramallah -- his first since that attack – comes as the United States grapples with the Israel-Hamas war and resulting humanitarian catastrophe. It comes on the heels of Blinken stops in Israel and Jordan.
Abbas and Blinken met twice in Jordan during the latter’s trip to the region several weeks ago, after October 7.
At a summit Saturday in Amman with the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, as well as the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Blinken said they are “all deeply concerned about escalating extremist violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank,” calling it “a serious problem that’s only worsened since the conflict.”
At least 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health – a number nearing the total number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank in all of 2022.
Blinken, who met with Israeli officials in Tel Aviv Friday, said he heard “a clear commitment from the government to deal with extremist violence in the West Bank, to condemn it, to take action to prevent it, to take action against those who perpetrate it.”
“This is important, and we will be looking closely to ensure that our friends make good on that commitment,” he said.
Blinken has spoken about the need to focus on “the day of” and the “day after,” and has suggested the Palestinian Authority could play a role in Gaza’s future if Hamas is eliminated.
“At some point, what would make the most sense would be for an effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza,” he said at a congressional hearing last week.
“Whether you can get there in one step is a big question that we have to look at. And if you can’t, then there are other temporary arrangements that may involve a number of other countries in the region. It may involve international agencies that would help provide for both security and governance,” he said.
CNN’s Abeer Salman contributed to this report
