Abbas laments stagnation of Gaza rebuild, says it must be joined into Palestinian state

NEW YORK — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas laments the stagnation of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war.

Abbas recalls that the PA backed the plan, which kept his West Bank-based body from governing the Strip until it carries out comprehensive reforms.

“Unfortunately, we have not seen [the plan to rebuild Gaza] materialize on the ground. Israeli killing and aggression continue to claim the lives of men, women and children in Gaza,” he says.

Abbas notes that the mandate granted by the UN Security Council for Trump’s Board of Peace to oversee the postwar management of Gaza expires at the end of next year.

“The transitional period must not turn into a permanent or open-ended situation without a clear political and time horizon,” he says. “Rather, it must lead to the reunification of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under the jurisdiction of the State of Palestine and its legitimate institutions, according to the principle of: one state, one government, one law, and one legitimate weapon.”

He goes on to call out what he says have been attacks by Jewish extremists against Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and the West Bank as well as Israel’s efforts to shutter the UN Agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. Jerusalem argues that the agency, which is responsible for providing education, healthcare and vocational training to Palestinians, is irredeemably infiltrated by Hamas.

Abbas requests that the international community urgently intervene to prevent Israel’s ongoing advancement of the controversial E1 settlement project in the West Bank, “which aims to separate the northern West Bank from the south and isolate East Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings, preventing the realization of a geographically contiguous Palestinian state.”

The PA president thanks the UK and 11 other Western countries that recently announced plans to sanction Israeli settlements and calls on Trump to fulfill his commitment to Arab leaders last year to prevent Israel from annexing the West Bank.

While Jerusalem has refrained from formally doing so, critics argue that its host of steps aimed at expanding its grip and settlement presence throughout the West Bank amount to de facto annexation.