Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reaffirmed his position on the post-war in Gaza, telling the White House Envoy, Philip Gordon, that the two-state agreement based on international legitimacy resolutions requires the State of Palestine to assume full responsibility over the West Bank and Gaza.
Gordon arrived in Ramallah on Wednesday coming from Tel Aviv, where he held extensive discussions with Israeli officials addressing attempts to "weaken the authority" in the West Bank and the establishment of a Palestinian entity that will assume responsibility in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip after the war.
Gordon, also National security Advisor to US Vice President Kamala Harris, discussed the two issues with Abbas, who asserted that the Palestinian Authority is present and has not left the Gaza Strip.
Abbas stressed that peace and security are achieved by ending the Israeli occupation of the entire territory of Palestine along the 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and resolving the issue of refugees and their return by Resolution 194.
"We will not allow the forced displacement of our Palestinian people to take place, whether in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, including Jerusalem," said Abbas.
The President asserted that Washington needs to intervene to prevent the attacks, murders, demolition of homes, and displacement of the Palestinian population carried out by the Israeli occupation authorities and terrorist colonists in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Jordan Valley areas.
The US wants a "renewed Palestinian Authority," while the PA wants comprehensive rule within the framework of a political solution. Israel does not want any Palestinian authority of any kind.
Earlier, the Palestinian presidency lashed out at the United States holding it responsible for the Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh accused Israel of practicing "organized terrorism against Palestinians wherever they are."
Abu Rudeineh called on the UN Security Council to intervene urgently to stop this comprehensive aggression and stop the shedding of Palestinian blood in light of unprecedented international silence.
The spokesman said the US administration was responsible for Israel’s escalation, urging it to pressure the Israeli government to stop the aggression and end the occupation.
Gordon, accompanied by Harris' National Security Adviser Ilan Goldenberg, focused on discussing the future of Gaza and "day-after" scenarios and plans.
A US official stated that Israeli officials who had been focused on fighting the war were "ready to talk about the future" in Gaza.
Washington wants to avoid a governing and security vacuum in Gaza after the war that might allow Hamas to rise again, as stated in two reports by the Axois website and the Israeli "Walla" website.
The White House officials arrived in Israel from Dubai, where they accompanied Harris in her meetings with the UAE, Egypt, and Jordan leaders on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit.
The US officials said the group discussed military objectives and operations in Gaza.
"Gordon emphasized to the Israelis that Hamas is a barbaric terrorist organization and that no nation could accept the threat Hamas poses, and that we support Israel's legitimate military objectives and its right to defend itself," one of the US officials said.
Gordon told his Israeli counterparts that the US wants to have a plan for Gaza's future to avoid allowing Hamas "to come back to life."
A senior US official said there was movement on the "Israeli side from a point where they were only focused on the fighting and refused to discuss the day-after to a point where they are ready to talk about the future."
A senior Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and the Biden administration have been discussing the issue of post-war Gaza for weeks and that there'd been no change in Israel's approach.
The US officials acknowledged there are still differences between how the US sees Gaza after the war and how Israel sees it, mainly around the question of what role the Palestinian Authority will play.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu pushed back against the idea of the Palestinian Authority having a future role, stressing that the only way to make sure post-war Gaza is demilitarized is for the Israeli forces, not international troops, to oversee that process.
"Nobody thinks the Palestinian Authority in its current state could run Gaza and provide security, but nobody sees at the moment any alternative to a Palestinian leadership in Gaza after the war," one US official said.
He added: "We think we need to strengthen the Palestinian Authority so that it could govern Gaza."
