Abbas presses Blinken to push for Gaza ceasefire as refugee camp is struck overnight
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RAMALLAH, Palestinian territories - US top diplomat Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to the occupied West Bank on Sunday.
He met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who urged him to persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire, as the death toll in Gaza continues to climb.
A Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson said earlier on Sunday that the Israeli military had struck the Maghazi refugee camp overnight, killing at least 47 people.
In a separate attack, 21 Palestinians from one family, including women and children, were killed in Israeli strikes targeting Gaza overnight, the Health Ministry added.
“We demand that you stop them from committing these crimes immediately,” Mr Abbas told Mr Blinken, demanding an “immediate ceasefire” from Israel.
“There are no words to describe the war of genocide and destruction... (that) our Palestinian people are being subjected (to) in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli war machine, without regard to the rules of international law,” Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted Mr Abbas as telling Mr Blinken.
Foreign ministers from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates met Mr Blinken in Amman on Saturday. They also pushed for Washington to convince Israel
He is instead trying to convince Israel to agree to location-specific pauses that would allow much-needed aid to be distributed within Gaza.
“The secretary reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance and resumption of essential services in Gaza, and made clear that Palestinians must not be forcibly displaced,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Mr Abbas has had little sway in Gaza since the Hamas takeover of the enclave in 2007.
Israel says it is targeting Hamas, not civilians, and that the Palestinian group is using residents as human shields.
The current spike in violence began when Hamas fighters launched an attack on southern Israel on Oct 7
Evacuations of injured Gazans and foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing to Egypt have been suspended since Saturday, two Egyptian security sources and a medical source told Reuters.
They said the suspension followed an Israeli strike on Friday on an ambulance in Gaza
The Rafah crossing to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula is the only exit point from Gaza not controlled by Israel.
Aid trucks were still able to travel into the territory, two of the sources said.
Qatar, which has played a major role in facilitating humanitarian aid and hostage release, said it was doing its best to resume the operation of the crucial exit. But Doha said there was no timeline for when the crossing would be reactivated.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday disciplined a junior member of his Cabinet
Israel continued to strike the Gaza Strip by air, sea and ground overnight.
Gaza health officials said Israeli air strikes destroyed a cluster of houses in the Maghazi refugee camp.
When asked for comment, the Israeli military said it was awaiting and gathering details.
Reuters footage showed people searching through rubble for victims or survivors at the refugee camp in central Gaza.
Mr Mohammad Al-Aloul, a photographer for Turkish news agency Anadolu, said he lost his four children, four of his brothers and their children in the strike, which destroyed his house.
“I was doing my job when I heard that an Israeli air strike targeted a residential district in Maghazi, and that there were martyrs and injured,” Mr Al-Aloul told Reuters.
“I arrived in hospital and found out that my four children, including my only daughter, were martyred.”
Israeli air strikes destroyed a cluster of houses in the Maghazi refugee camp, Gazan authorities said.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
The Palestinian Red Crescent said there was also intense bombardment, violent artillery explosions and air strikes in the vicinity of the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza’s Tal al-Hawa area.
US special envoy David Satterfield said in Amman on Saturday that 800,000 to a million people had moved south, while 350,000 to 400,000 remained in and around Gaza City.
Living conditions in Gaza, already dire before the war, have deteriorated. Food is scarce, residents are drinking salty water and medical services are collapsing.
The United Nations humanitarian office estimates that nearly 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are internally displaced.
Meanwhile, worsening violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has fuelled concerns that the flashpoint Palestinian territory could become a third front in a wider war.
This is in addition to Israel’s northern border, where clashes with Lebanese Hezbollah forces have mounted.
In Abu Dis, a Palestinian village near Jerusalem, Israeli police conducting an arrest raid were fired on by a gunman and killed him, a police spokesperson said.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said three Palestinians were killed in the incident, which it described as clashes with Israeli forces.
Another Palestinian was killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Hebron, the ministry said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Mr Blinken and Mr Abbas “discussed efforts to restore calm and stability in the West Bank, including the need to stop extremist violence against Palestinians and hold those accountable responsible,” Mr Miller said.
According to UN data, 2023 has already been the deadliest for West Bank residents in at least 15 years, with some 200 Palestinians and 26 Israelis killed.
Since the war in Gaza began, 121 West Bank Palestinians have been killed.
Israel in October ordered all civilians to leave the northern part of the Gaza Strip
Its military has since encircled Gaza City, where it is engaged in fierce street fighting with Hamas militants.
Israeli planes dropped leaflets on Gaza’s biggest city, ordering people to move south through the Salah al-Deen Road between 10am and 2pm on Sunday.
“Time has come, the state of Israel asks you to preserve your lives and to evacuate your homes from the areas of fighting,” the leaflets said.
Israel’s assault and siege have stirred global alarm at humanitarian conditions in the narrow coastal enclave.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests on Saturday in cities including London, Berlin, Paris, Istanbul and Jakarta, calling for a ceasefire.
Demonstrators rallying in support of Palestinians amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, on Nov 4.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Tens of thousands gathered in Washington, DC, to denounce US President Joe Biden’s war policy and demand a ceasefire.
In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi reaffirmed the government’s support for the struggle of the Palestinian people in front of tens of thousands gathered in Jakarta
Indonesians raising Palestinian flags during a pro-Palestinian rally at the National Monument park in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Nov 4.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Speaking in Shanghai, Mr Mohammad Mokhber, Iran’s First Vice-President, called Israel’s actions “a war crime”.
Mr Blinken is to visit Turkey on Monday for talks on the war, continuing his second trip to the region since the conflict escalated. REUTERS
