Biden threatens sanctions on 'extremist settlers' in West Bank | Middle East, the eternal conflict

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American President Joe Biden

Agence France-Presse

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Joe Biden called on Saturday to a future reunification of the West Bank and Gaza Strip under a “revitalized Palestinian Authority” and threatened sanctions against “extremist” settlers who attack Palestinians in the West Bank.

Gaza and the West Bank should be reunified under the same governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, once Hamas is driven from the Palestinian territory it has governed since 2007, following the Israeli military operation in progress, writes the American president in a column published by the daily The Washington Post.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded in a press conference that the Palestinian Authority in its current form is not capable of taking responsibility for Gaza. We cannot have an authority civilian in Gaza who supports terrorism, encourages terrorism, finances terrorism and teaches terrorism, he said.

President Mahmoud Abbas, who governs the autonomous areas of the West Bank, in early November linked a return of the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip to a political settlement that would also include the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Gaza Strip is an integral part of the State of Palestine. We will take full responsibility within the framework of a comprehensive political solution for the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, said Mahmoud Abbas while receiving American Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Ramallah. p>

Middle East, the eternal conflict

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Middle East, the eternal conflict

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In his written column, Joe Biden threatens also to ban visas from extremists who attack civilians in the West Bank.

Extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must end and those who commit this violence must be held to account, he insists.

A two-state solution is the only way to ensure the long-term security of the Israeli people and the Palestinian people. Today, this prospect seems more distant than ever, but the current crisis makes it more necessary than ever.

A quote from Joe Biden

Getting there will require commitments from Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the United States and our partners and allies. This work must start now, he pleads.

Gaza must never again be used as a base for terrorism. There must be no forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade and no reduction of territory, he says.

The American president also repeats his opposition to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

As long as Hamas clings to its ideology of destruction, a ceasefire will not be peace. For Hamas members, each ceasefire provides time to replenish rocket stocks, reposition fighters and resume the massacre by attacking innocent people again, he says.

Retaliatory bombings on the Gaza Strip have been incessant since Hamas carried out an attack of unprecedented scale and violence on October 7 on Israeli soil which left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, and kidnapped around 240 people with other armed groups, according to the Israeli authorities.

According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, Israeli strikes have killed at least 12,000 Palestinian civilians, including 5,000 children.

Tensions are also high live in the West Bank, territory occupied since 1967 by Israel, where around 200 Palestinians have been killed by settlers and Israeli soldiers since October 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.