An organized attempt to assassinate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took place on Tuesday after the leader was handed a 24-hour ultimatum by the “Sons of Abu Jandal”.
The group, who were created within the West Bank’s Palestinian security system to take action against Israel, claimed credit for the incident on Abbas’ convoy. One of Abbas’ bodyguards was reportedly shot dead during the attack.
The ‘Son of Abu Jandal’ has ordered the president to declare a “global war against the Zionist occupation”. It comes just a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took his diplomatic push on the Israel-Hamas war to the occupied West Bank on Sunday,
trying to assure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that the Biden administration was intensifying efforts to ease the plight of Gaza’s civilians and insisting that Palestinians must have a main say in whatever comes next for the territory after the conflict.
Blinken’s meeting with Abbas in the West Bank came on the same day that Israeli planes bombed two refugee camps in Gaza, killing at least 53 people, according to health officials in Gaza.
An Associated Press reporter saw the dead bodies of eight children brought into a nearby Gaza hospital after one of those strikes. Israel’s military announced its forces had effectively split the Gaza Strip in two before an expected escalated assault on Hamas targets in the north.
As word spread of Blinken’s arrival in Ramallah, Palestinians turned out to protest US support for Israel’s war. Demonstrators held signs showing dripping blood and with messages that included, “Blinken blood is on your hands.” Neither Blinken nor Abbas spoke as they greeted each other in front of cameras and their meeting ended without any public comment.
