Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ planned visit to Gaza has been welcomed as humanitarian conditions in the territory worsen, including fears of a polio outbreak, despite the resumption of cease-fire talks led by Qatari, Egyptian, and US mediators.
Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, director of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies, told China Daily that though Abbas's desire to come to Gaza is “a little bit late”, it is “worthy of appreciation”.
“I suspect that this new development is related to the unity agreement of the Palestinian factions in Beijing and the escalation that is happening due to the killing of Ismail Haniyeh,” said Sulaeman, referring to the July 31 assassination of the Hamas leader in Teheran, Iran.
Earlier in July, representatives of 14 Palestinian factions signed a declaration in Beijing pledging to end division and strengthen unity.
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“I hope that Mr. Abbas, who has been known to have a more accommodating position towards Israel when meeting directly with the resistance factions in Gaza, will increasingly provide support to take a firm stance against Israel, namely demanding that Israel stop its attacks on Gaza and open up humanitarian aid channels,” she added.
Abbas announced his plan at the Turkish parliament during a visit on Aug 15, the same day that the death toll in Gaza amid Israel’s military campaign surpassed 40,000.
There are also fears of a polio outbreak in Gaza.
On Aug 16, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to all parties to lay down their weapons so that humanitarians can safely vaccinate more than half a million children in Gaza against polio.
Palestine’s Wafa News Agency reported that Abbas and his government are preparing to travel to Gaza to “restore national unity” and emphasize that the State of Palestine and the Palestine Liberation Organization are the mandate holders responsible for the entire State of Palestine.
Wafa reported that Abbas was in communication with the UN, the permanent members of the UN Security Council, Arab countries, and other significant countries and global powers, including Israel, to ensure the success of the trip.
Chief of Radio, Television, and Webcast Section at the UN Information Service Michele Zaccheo, said the idea that the UN could provide security “is probably not so realistic at this stage”.
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He added that the principal responsibility for providing security in the occupied territories “lies with the occupying powers”, reported Turkiye’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
Director of the Asia Middle East Center for Research and Dialogue in Malaysia (AMEC) Muslim Imran told China Daily that Palestinians expect Abbas “to take serious action to end the genocide”.
Having failed to do so for 10 months raises serious questions about the credibility of claims that Abbas will visit Gaza, he noted.
Negotiations on a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza — the latest round of which reopened on Aug 15 — are set to resume on Aug 21 in Cairo, according to Xinhua News Agency, citing Egyptian officials.
On Aug 16, mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and the United States announced in a joint statement that a "bridging proposal" had been presented to Hamas and Israel.
The same day, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne released a joint statement following the first joint ministerial visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in a decade.
They said their countries “share a common interest in the security of the State of Israel” and the “stability of the region as a whole”.
The statement also noted that as permanent UN Security Council (UNSC) members, France and the UK have a specific responsibility to support ending the current escalation and securing a lasting peace to the benefit of Israelis, Palestinians, and the whole region.
READ MORE: Palestinian death toll in Gaza exceeds 40,000 as peace talks resume
The risk of wider conflict in the Middle East has never been higher and we must push for de-escalation now, the statement said, as they “urged Iran and its proxies to stand down the ongoing threats of military attack against Israel”.
Imran from AMEC said that the French and British Foreign Ministers' statement is “self-defeating” because it reads as if Israeli security is at stake, not the fact that Israel is “currently perpetrating one of the most heinous genocides in modern history”.
They are demanding the oppressed to not retaliate, which is very hypocritical as they were sponsoring “Israel’s brutalities and thuggery across the region” by providing the political and security cover for Israel to continue its war crimes, he said.
On Aug 16, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese called out Western powers on her X account for omitting civilian deaths in their statements.
Referring to a joint statement by the leaders of France, Germany, and the UK on Aug 12, she said after 10 “catastrophic months” the three permanent members of the UNSC wrote a 21-line statement on the Middle East with “not a single word about the millions scarred by the ongoing atrocities”.
