Blinken pays an unannounced visit to the West Bank

In an unexpected trip to the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority.

Blinken’s surprise trip to Ramallah, in the West Bank, came after his Saturday gathering in Amman, Jordan, with Arab leaders. He was supposed to travel to Turkey as well.

Israel declared on Sunday that “over 2,500 terror targets have been struck” since it began its assault against Hamas on October 7.

Israel claimed that “the combined activities” of its air, ground, and naval troops were responsible for hitting the targets.

“Overnight, IDF troops directed aircraft to strike a Hamas military compound containing command and control centres, observation posts, and additional terrorist infrastructure,” the Israeli military stated in a statement that was uploaded on its Telegram channel.

Following the unexpected Hamas attack that resulted in the deaths of over 1,400 Israelis and the kidnapping of over 200 others, the fight against Hamas was initiated.

In a social media post, the World Health Organisation stated that it has recorded 102 strikes on Gaza Strip medical facilities since October 7, which have resulted in “504 fatalities, 459 injuries, damage to 39 facilities and affected 31 ambulances.”

Over half of the targeted hospitals and over half of the health attacks, according to the U.N. agency, occurred in Gaza City.

In other news, Amihai Eliyahu, the minister of heritage, has stated that dropping a nuclear weapon on Gaza is a possibility. As a result, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suspended Eliyahu from Cabinet meetings, according to the Associated Press and other media.

READ ALSO: Pontiff calls for an end to the fighting in the Hamas-Israel conflict

On social media, Netanyahu said that Eliyahu’s remarks were “not based in reality.”

Eliyahu is not a member of Israel’s Cabinet for Wartime Security.

In the meantime, to demonstrate their “solidarity” with Israel and its people, former Australian and British prime leaders Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson travelled to Israel.

“I am grateful for the chance to accompany former Prime Minister Johnson to visit Israel as a show of solidarity with the people and state of Israel and the Jewish community throughout the world,” Morrison stated on Sunday.

“We want to see Gaza as a peaceful region that is a part of an independent Palestinian state, in line with 1967 borders, with territorial integrity, and with East Jerusalem as its capital,” stated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday, according to broadcaster Haberturk and others.

On Saturday, Ankara announced that its ambassador to Israel would be returning. Following Erdogan’s declaration last month that, in contrast to the United States, Britain, and other Western nations, he does not consider Hamas to be a terrorist organisation and that the group is fighting for freedom, Israel withdrew its envoys from Turkey.

The events transpired before Blinken’s planned trip to Turkey.

Blinken was pressed on the necessity of an urgent cease-fire in Gaza at his meeting with Arab leaders on Saturday in Amman, Jordan, as Israeli forces struck a U.N. shelter and school, killing people.

Blinken held meetings with his counterparts from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the secretary-general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. He also had a meeting with Najib Mikati, the acting prime minister of Lebanon.

Although he denounced the October 7 Hamas strikes and stated that “nobody in their right mind” would minimise Israel’s suffering on that day, Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told reporters on Saturday that the Gaza conflict could not be allowed to drag on.

Following his discussion with Blinken and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Safadi declared, “The whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come.”