Palestinian Authority could only return to Gaza if 'solution' found to conflict: Mahmud Abbas
Mahmud Abbas said Sunday that the Palestinian Authority could return to power in the Gaza Strip only if a «comprehensive solution» is found for the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Israel has sought to destroy Gaza's Hamas rulers since the deadly October 7 attacks, raising the question of who would run the Palestinian territory after the war.
«We (the Palestinian Authority) will fully assume our responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution that includes all of the West Bank, including east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip,» Abbas told visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
At a congressional hearing late last month, Blinken said that «what would make the most sense would be for an effective and revitalised Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza.»
There cannot be a «reversion of the status quo with Hamas running Gaza», Blinken said.
Hamas, considered a «terrorist» group by the European Union and the United States, is a rival of Abbas's Fatah party.
Hamas took over the coastal territory from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, after being blocked from exercising real power despite winning a parliamentary election the previous year.
Israel fully withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but imposed a crippling blockade after Hamas took power.
