The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has travelled to the occupied West Bank to discuss the Gaza Strip’s future with the Palestinian Authority president in the face of opposition from Israel to any post-war Palestinian administration of the coastal territory,
The Guardian reports.
Sullivan, a senior figure in the Biden administration, was visiting Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Friday after two days of meetings in Tel Aviv with Israeli officials including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
He and Abbas were scheduled to discuss potential post-war arrangements for Gaza, which could include the return of Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces to the strip 16 years after they were driven out by Hamas.
“We do not believe that it makes sense for Israel, or is right for Israel, to … reoccupy Gaza over the long term,” Sullivan told reporters in Tel Aviv on Friday. “Ultimately the control of Gaza, the administration of Gaza and the security of Gaza has to transition to the Palestinians.”
“Ongoing efforts to revamp and revitalise” the Palestinian Authority and rein in settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank were also on the agenda, he said.
Joe Biden has provided Israel with billions of dollars in military aid in the aftermath of the 7 October Hamas attack that killed 1,139 people and sparked the latest war in Gaza. The 10-week-old conflict has already claimed more than 18,000 lives and left the strip’s population of 2.3 million facing a devastating humanitarian crisis.
But there are growing differences in opinion and strategy between the US and Israel over the war’s execution. Washington has been pressing Israel for weeks to reduce civilian casualties and allow more aid into the besieged territory, as well as share concrete plans for how the war will end and who it expects to control Gaza when the fighting stops.
People across Gaza reported heavy fighting on Friday, with an influx of dead and wounded at hospitals in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah. Communications services remained patchy since going down on Thursday.
