BLINKEN MEETS PALESTINIAN LEADER IN WEST BANK AS HE PUSHES FOR PAUSE IN GAZA FIGHTING

 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank

1. President Abbas is the leader of the Palestinian Authority, which governs the parts of the West Bank not under Israeli control
2. Blinken has been working with leaders in the region on a so-called humanitarian pause. President Joe Biden suggested there had been some progress on the issue.
   
   
   
3. But Arab countries have been demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The US warns this would allow Hamas to regroup
4. Meanwhile the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 30 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on the al-Maghazi refugee camp - the Israeli military says it is investigating
5. The UN says there are nearly 1.5 million displaced Gazans - and its facilities in the south are over capacity and no longer able to accept new arrivals
6. Israel began bombing Gaza after Hamas killed more than 1,400 people in Israel and kidnapped more than 200 others
7. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 9,400 people have been killed in the Strip since 7 October.

8. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced trip to the West Bank City of Ramallah, where he met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas

   The secretary flew from Amman to Tel Aviv on Sunday morning and made the 90-minute drive to the West Bank city in a motorcade of armoured vans and SUVs with dark-tinted windows.

   I am among the journalists travelling with Blinken. On the highway, we passed several Jewish settlements on the West Bank, notable for their high walls and barbed wire.

9. Abbas calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza

   During their meeting, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that there must be an "immediate ceasefire" and humanitarian aid allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, his spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh told Reuters news agency.

   According to the Palestinian official news agency he also told Blinken: "I have no words to describe the genocide and destruction suffered by our Palestinian people in Gaza at the hands of Israel's war machine, with no regard for the principles of international law."

   This follows similar demands from Arab states.

   On Saturday, Blinken dismissed the notion of a ceasefire during a joint press conference with the Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers, saying it would allow Hamas to regroup and calling instead for a humanitarian pause (earlier we looked at the difference between the two here).

10. FULL DETAILS AT: Israel Gaza live news: Blinken meets Palestinian leader Abbas in West Bank as he pushes for pause in fighting - BBC News