Blinken seeks Palestinian governance reform for postwar Gaza as deadly Israeli strikes continue

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Wednesday to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas about reforming his government as Blinken sought to rally the region behind postwar plans for Gaza that include concrete steps toward a Palestinian state.

The U.S. is pushing for a reformed Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza once the war is over. Blinken says multiple countries in the region have agreed to help rebuild the territory and that wider Israeli-Arab normalization is still possible, but only if there is “a pathway to a Palestinian state.”

In their meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Blinken told Abbas that the U.S. supports “tangible steps” toward a Palestinian state, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. He said the two discussed administrative reform.

The vision outlined by Blinken faces serious obstacles. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has so far rejected Palestinian Authority control in Gaza and adamantly opposes the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The autocratic, Western-backed Palestinian leadership, whose forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas took over in 2007, lacks legitimacy in the view of many Palestinians.

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-01-10-2024-c4e961fa3255901e1ca0297bd07cd547