WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said on Saturday the Palestinian Authority should ultimately govern the West Bank and the Gaza Strip after the Israel-Hamas war.
He said, “As we struggle for peace, the West Bank and Gaza must be reunified under a uniform governance system, eventually under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work towards a two-state solution.”
“There should be no blockade, no reduction in territory, no reoccupation, and no forcible displacement of Palestinian people from the Gaza Strip,” Biden wrote in the Washington Post.
He utilized the op-ed to try to reply the question of what Washington wants for the Gaza Strip once the crisis is over. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said Israel must maintain “overall military responsibility” in the Gaza Strip “for the future.”
Palestinian Authority Should Eventually Govern West Bank, Gaza: Biden
The US President also said Washington is also prepared to issue visa bans against “extremists” assaulting civilian population in the West Bank. Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian people living in the occupied West Bank has increased since the October 7.
“I have been emphatic with Israel that extremist settler violence against Palestinian people in the West Bank must halt and that those carrying out the violence must be held answerable,” Joe Biden further wrote.
About 3 million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank, among over half a million Jewish settlers, has been seething for more than 18 months, drawing mounting global concern as violence has escalated following Oct. 7.
READ ALSO: Death Toll in Gaza War Surpasses 12,300
Other world leaders also expressed their views over the current war in Gaza as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has criticized Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and called for a two-state solution to end crisis in the Middle East.
German news agency DPA cited Olaf Scholz saying, “In our point of view, there must be a two-state solution and a possibility of peaceful coexistence in the region.”
Scholz blasted Israel’s construction of new unlawful settlements on Palestinian territory and added that they did not want new settlements in the occupied West Bank.
As per the German media reports, the Chancellor also spoke to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip requires “urgent” improvement. “In a phone call with Israeli PM Netanyahu, I emphasized the urgent need to improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” Scholz said.
