Blinken shuttles from the West Bank to Iraq trying to contain the fallout from the Israel-Hamas war

RAMALLAH – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took his diplomatic push on the Israel-Hamas war to the occupied West Bank on Sunday, trying to guarantee Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the Biden management was once intensifying efforts to ease the plight of Gaza’s civilians and insisting that Palestinians will have to have a first-rate say in no matter comes subsequent for the territory after the war.

Blinken later flew to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi Prime Mohammed Shia al-Sudani as American forces in the area face a surge of assaults through Iranian-allied militias in Iraq and somewhere else. U.S. forces shot down every other one-way assault drone Sunday that was once focused on American and coalition troops close to their base in neighboring Syria, a U.S. legit stated.

President Joe Biden’s best diplomat traveled via the West Bank town of Ramallah in an armored motorcade and underneath tight safety. It was once his 3rd day of trip international relations geared toward trying to restrict the destabilizing regional fallout from the war and conquer what has been Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to believe a U.S. proposal for intermittent pauses in its assault on Hamas lengthy sufficient to rush essential help to Gaza’s civilians.

Netanyahu had pushed back Friday towards the U.S. force to get started enforcing pauses in the combating, announcing there could be no transient cease-fire till Hamas releases some 240 international hostages it’s keeping.

“This is a process,” Blinken advised newshounds on the topic Sunday. “Israel has raised important questions about how humanitarian pauses would work. We’ve got to answer those questions,” together with how pauses would have an effect on Hamas hostages. “We’re working on exactly that.’’

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’s meeting with Abbas in the West Bank came on the same day that Israeli planes bombed two refugee camps in Gaza, killing at least 53 people, according to health officials in Gaza. An Associated Press reporter saw the dead bodies of eight children brought in to a nearby Gaza hospital after one of those strikes. Israel’s military announced its forces had effectively split the Gaza Strip in two before an expected escalated assault on Hamas targets in the north.

As phrase unfold of Blinken’s arrival in Ramallah, Palestinians grew to become out to protest U.S. improve for Israel’s war. Demonstrators held indicators appearing dripping blood and with messages that incorporated, “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. Abbas himself is unpopular among Palestinians.

Blinken said in Baghdad that the Palestinian Authority “is playing a very important role right now in the West Bank in trying to keep stability there. That’s hugely important because no one wants another front in the West Bank or anywhere else, and they’re really stepping up under very difficult conditions to do the necessary work.”

He stated that “what we all agree” is that during shaping a long run for Gaza, the West Bank and “ultimately” for a Palestinian state, “Palestinian voices have to be at the center of that. The Palestinian Authority is the representative of those voices so it’s important that it play a leading role.’’

Abbas, however, said the Palestinian Authority would only assume power in Gaza as part of a “comprehensive political solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the Palestinians’ official WAFA news agency. He also condemned Israel’s bombardment of Gaza as a “genocidal war” and suggested Blinken “to right away forestall them from committing such crimes,” the new company reported.

On his 2d shuttle to the Middle East since the war started, Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday prior to holding talks in Jordan with Arab ministers Saturday. Netanyahu thus far has rejected humanitarian pauses. The Arab officers driven for a direct cease-fire. Blinken stated that will be counterproductive and may just inspire extra violence through Hamas.

U.S. officers imagine that Netanyahu would possibly melt his opposition to the pause thought if he can also be satisfied that it’s in Israel’s strategic pursuits to ease the plight of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The hovering loss of life toll amongst Palestinians — greater than 9,700, in accordance to officers of Gaza’s Hamas-run well being ministry — has sparked rising world anger, with tens of thousands from Washington to Berlin taking to the streets over the weekend to call for a cease-fire now.

Arab states are resisting American tips that they play a bigger function in resolving disaster, expressing outrage at the civilian toll of the Israeli army operations however believing Gaza to be an issue in large part of Israel’s personal making.

Among Arab leaders, Blinken stated it’s transparent that “everyone would welcome the humanitarian pause.” He stated it “could advance things that we’re all trying to accomplish,” together with releasing hostages, bringing in help and getting out international voters. On that final level, he stated: “We’ve had important progress there in recent days but also real complications that come along with it. We continue to work through them.’’

In Baghdad, the talks touched on the security of U.S. forces.

“I made very clear that the attacks, the threats coming from the militia that are aligned with Iran, are totally unacceptable and we will take every necessary step to protect” American staff, Blinken stated prior to heading to Turkey. He stated the high minister expressed his personal choice to forestall the armed forces moves.

The U.S. has deep considerations that Iran and its proxies, together with a number of armed forces teams in Iraq, would possibly make the most of the state of affairs in Gaza to additional destabilize the Middle East. Already Iranian-backed militias have intensified rocket and different assaults on U.S. army amenities in Iraq and Syria, drawing a minimum of one retaliatory strike from American forces.

Sunday’s assault through drone towards a U.S. web site in Syria was once a minimum of the thirty second on U.S. and coalition army amenities in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17. To date there were a minimum of 17 assaults in Iraq and 15 in Syria. At least 21 provider participants were injured through the assaults however all have returned to responsibility, the Pentagon stated.

The similar U.S. legit who showed the U.S. shootdown of the drone stated the drone strike was once very equivalent to different fresh assaults on U.S. staff at bases in Iraq and Syria and is thought at this level to be related to Iranian-backed armed forces. The legit was once now not approved to talk about the topic publicly and spoke on situation of anonymity.

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Associated Press writers Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this document.