Antony J. Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, met on Wednesday with Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, to discuss Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and the role that the authority might play there when the conflict ebbs.
Mr. Blinken traveled in a convoy from Tel Aviv in Israel to Ramallah, the seat of the authority, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The two men shook hands outside the authority’s headquarters and sat down for talks with their aides.
The Biden administration has said it envisions a role for the Palestinian Authority in governing both the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas has run Gaza since it won elections in the tiny coastal strip in 2006 and violently drove out Fatah, the group now in charge of the authority in the West Bank.
President Biden has also said Israel must allow for the formation of a Palestinian state, arguing that a political solution is the only way out of the decades-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Mr. Blinken reiterated that view in a news conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday after meetings with Israeli officials. He also said Saudi Arabia — whose ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he met with on Monday — was still willing to consider establishing normal diplomatic relations with Israel, but only if Israel agreed to concrete steps toward the establishment of a free and independent Palestine.
In their meeting, Mr. Abbas told Mr. Blinken that the Palestinians would not accept what he called Israeli plans to keep Gaza separate from the West Bank, according to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency. “The Gaza Strip is part and parcel of the state of Palestine,” the agency quoted him as saying.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, and his right-wing government have rejected the notion of a Palestinian state, and Mr. Netanyahu said years ago that Israeli officials should support a strong Hamas in Gaza in order to undermine the Palestinian Authority and the idea of a unified Palestine. He has also rejected any substantial role for the authority in Gaza.
After meeting with Mr. Abbas, Mr. Blinken flew to Bahrain for more talks on the war. The Bahrain stop was a last-minute addition to his multiday diplomatic mission across the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East that began last Friday.
Speaking in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, Mr. Blinken said he had spoken with Mr. Abbas about the need to make changes to the Palestinian Authority to make it more effective as a governing organization. He said Mr. Abbas was “committed” to that.
“He’s prepared to move forward and engage in all of these efforts,” Mr. Blinken said, adding that this would be an important step toward an eventual goal of uniting the West Bank and Gaza under one governing body.
Critics say the authority, which has limited governing powers in the West Bank, has become more autocratic and corrupt over the years.
A senior Palestinian Authority official with knowledge of the meeting said the authority had given Mr. Blinken a written proposal for reforms on freedom of speech, corruption, health care and other areas — but only in the context of a broader deal on ending the war and then governing and rebuilding Gaza.
The authority’s terms, the official said, include returning the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, where it was forced out in a brief, bloody conflict with Hamas in 2007, and a plan for a long-term resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Mr. Blinken planned to meet in Cairo later in the trip with the president of Egypt, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Mr. Abbas, after the meeting with Mr. Blinken, traveled to Aqaba, Jordan, joining Mr. el-Sisi at a meeting called by King Abdullah II. They discussed securing an “immediate” cease-fire in Gaza and delivering aid there, according to a statement from Egypt’s presidential office.
The three leaders emphasized that displaced Gazans must be able to return home. In an apparent reference to remarks by two far-right Israeli officials suggesting that Palestinians should emigrate from the territory and Israeli settlements be re-established there, the statement rejected any effort to remove Gazans and “any attempts to re-occupy parts of Gaza.”
Reporting was contributed by Adam Rasgon from Jerusalem and Vivian Yee from Cairo.
