US President Joe Biden said the Palestinian Authority should ultimately govern both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank after the Israel-Hamas conflict ends.
"Gaza and the West Bank should be united under a single governing structure, ultimately under a revived Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution," Biden wrote in an op-ed published in the Washington Post on November 18.
US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office, White House, October 19. Photo: Reuters
"There must be no use of force to remove Palestinians from Gaza, no reoccupation, no siege or blockade, and no atrophy of territory," the US President added.
He uses this article to try to answer the question of what the US wants for Gaza after the Israel-Hamas conflict ends.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected President Biden's proposal to have the Palestinian Authority administer Gaza. "I think the Palestinian Authority in its current form is not capable of taking responsibility for Gaza," he said at a press conference in Tel Aviv.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has previously said Israel must maintain "overall military responsibility" in Gaza "for the foreseeable future".
The Palestinian Authority once governed both the West Bank and Gaza but was ousted from Gaza in 2007 after a brief civil war with Hamas.
"I stressed to Israeli leaders that the extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must end and those who commit acts of violence must be held accountable," the US president said.
Tensions in the West Bank, home to 3 million Palestinians and more than half a million Jewish settlers, have simmered for more than 18 months, raising international concern as violence escalated following Hamas's October 7 attack on Israeli territory.
The current Israeli-Palestinian territory (left) and the one proposed by the United Nations in 1947. Graphics: Viet Chung
Vu Hoang (According to Reuters )
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