Earlier in the day, Mr Blinken met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has helped broker two ceasefires between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza since Mr Biden took office. Mr Blinken later told reporters he had discussed the current crisis with the Egyptian leader.
New armed groups of young PalestiniansChafing under the occupation and the creation of a two-tier legal system that differentiates between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank emerged over the past year, increasing the number of Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
But Mr. Abbas is in a weak position to establish order. The Palestinian Authority administers most Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank, but its grip on areas outside of Ramallah where Mr Abbas has been accused of autocratic behavior is loosening, particularly in cities like Jenin and Nablus, where the most active insurgents are based.
Mr. Abbas has long avoided fully enforcing the agency’s control in those cities, where public resentment against the body is already running high, amid widespread perceptions that it is corrupt and has too close a relationship with Israel. On Saturday, the agency released a statement blaming Israel for the escalation and ignoring Israeli demands for the Palestinian leadership to condemn Palestinian violence.
After months of public pressure, Mr Abbas last week scaled back the agency’s coordination with the Israeli security services after a Israeli operation in Jenin arresting several gunmen who killed 10 Palestinians. Despite US print restore the coordination mechanism analysts say Mr. Abbas may be reluctant to do so without some Israeli or American concession to the Palestinians.
Palestinian officials have said they would ask the International Criminal Court to investigate the Jenin operation, a move the Biden administration opposes. Last week, a State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel, told reporters the United States does not believe “multilateral forums” are appropriate for such efforts, and said Israel and the Palestinians should work directly to ensure accountability in such cases to set .
Although the Biden administration did funding restored As for Palestinian institutions that were cut during the Trump administration, Palestinian officials are frustrated that the president has not repealed other Trump-era policies that Palestinians see as obstacles to statehood.
