Abbas Calls for Permanent Ceasefire

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Thursday, Nov. 30 (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Thursday, Nov. 30 (Reuters)
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Abbas Calls for Permanent Ceasefire

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Thursday, Nov. 30 (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Thursday, Nov. 30 (Reuters)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for the full cessation of Israeli aggression in Gaza.

Abbas on Thursday told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who headed to Ramallah following a visit to Israel, that the entire aggression must be stopped in order to spare civilians more bombing, killing and destruction carried out by the Israeli killing machine.

The Palestinian president handed Blinken a file “on the crimes of the Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, including Jerusalem,” documenting killings, destruction, and ethnic cleansing crimes.

He said that the Gaza Strip was an integral part of the Palestinian state, rejecting Israeli displacement plans in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Abbas asked Blinken to intervene in several issues, including releasing Palestinian clearing funds, preventing the Israeli occupation authorities’ expulsion of the Palestinian population in the West Bank, stopping extremist settler attacks in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, doubling relief, medical and food supplies, and providing water, electricity and fuel as soon as possible to the Gaza Strip.

He also urged the US State Secretary to oblige the occupation government to immediately stop the repressive measures and violations against Palestinian prisoners.

Abbas put forward the idea of holding an international peace conference, stressing that the establishment of a Palestinian state was the key to peace.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian president’s call to stabilize the ceasefire came as difficulties emerged in extending the truce in the Gaza Strip.

Israel rejected Hamas’ offer to hand over seven detained women and children and the bodies of three of the same category of detainees, in exchange for extending the temporary humanitarian truce.

Israel requested that female detainees be handed over by name to Hamas, but the movement refused because they were conscripts in the Israeli army.

A senior Israeli source, who requested to remain anonymous, said that Israel’s conditions are clear: “The negotiations are either taking place under fire, or the kidnapped will continue to be released.”

The source added that this message was also delivered to Blinken during his trip to Israel.



At Least 11 Sudanese Killed in Drone Strike on Displacement Camp

A soldier extinguishes a fire following a drone strike in Ad-Damar, Sudan, April 25, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A soldier extinguishes a fire following a drone strike in Ad-Damar, Sudan, April 25, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
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At Least 11 Sudanese Killed in Drone Strike on Displacement Camp

A soldier extinguishes a fire following a drone strike in Ad-Damar, Sudan, April 25, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig
A soldier extinguishes a fire following a drone strike in Ad-Damar, Sudan, April 25, 2025. REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

At least 11 people were killed after a drone strike by the Rapid Support Forces hit a displacement camp in Sudan's River Nile state, the governor said in a statement, in an attack that also took out the regional power station for the fourth time.
The RSF, which denies carrying out drone attacks and did not respond to a request for comment, has targeted power stations in army-controlled locations in central and northern Sudan for the past several months, but the strikes had not previously left major death tolls, said Reuters.
"This morning we heard a large explosion and we found two families that had been burnt completely inside their tents, while they were sleeping," said teacher Mashair Hemeidan as she shed tears.
"We had left Khartoum fearful of the war and now the war has followed us here. I don't know where I will go with my family and children, we have no shelter or place to go to," she added.
The escalation of such strikes, which have hampered the country's electrical grid and plunged millions into weeks-long blackouts, comes two years into a damaging war as the army has been pushing the paramilitary force out of central Sudan.
Ground fighting in the war is now focused in the Darfur region, where the RSF is fighting to seize the army's remaining foothold, driving hundreds of thousands from their homes. There has also been fighting in western Omdurman, part of the capital where the RSF remains present.
The Friday morning attack by multiple missiles, which set some of the tents on fire, injured 23 other people, a medical official said. Reuters witnesses saw at least nine children among the injured.
"My nine-year-old son Ahmed was killed today, and now my nine-year-old Fadi and my seven-year-old Omnia are in the hospital," said Fadwa Adlan, a resident of the camp.
Some 179 families displaced by the fighting in the capital had been living in difficult conditions in an abandoned building and surrounding tents outside the town of al-Damer, receiving little in the way of humanitarian assistance. The camp was located about three kilometers (1.9 miles) from the Atbara power station which was also struck.
On Friday, authorities could be seen hosing down the residents' belongings destroyed in the fire and breaking down the camp. Residents were seen boarding buses to an unknown location.