Abbas cuts short official trip to Saudi Arabia over Israel’s ‘anti-terror operation’ in West Bank

Aug. 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday cut short his official visit to Saudi Arabia to return to the West Bank following the deaths of at least nine Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces in a new large-scale “anti-terrorist operation” in this area of ​​the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

According to information gathered by the Palestinian news agency WAFA, Abbas will return to the West Bank “to follow the latest developments in light of the Israeli aggression in the north of the West Bank,” although no further details have been released so far.

Abbas, who arrived in Saudi Arabia two days ago, held a meeting on Tuesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who conveyed Riyadh’s support for the Palestinian people “in their quest for their legitimate rights,” according to the Saudi state news agency SPA.

The meeting was attended by Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, respectively, as well as Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hussein al-Sheikh.

Abbas’ decision came hours after the Palestinian Authority reported nine deaths – seven in Tubas and two in Jenin – as a result of Israel’s “anti-terror operation” in the northern West Bank, amid an increase in incursions by Israeli troops since the attacks carried out on October 7, 2023 by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and other Palestinian factions.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Mustafa has ordered the relevant authorities to “increase emergency interventions to counter the Israeli aggression.” In addition, Nabil Abu Rudeina, Abbas’s spokesman, has warned of the “dangerous results” of “the escalation of the Israeli war in the West Bank, which is on top of the genocide in the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas, for its part, stressed that “the military operation in the West Bank is a practical attempt to implement the plans of the Zionist and extremist government, as expressed by its fascist ministers, and to expand the brutal war of extermination in Gaza to include cities, towns and refugee camps in the occupied West Bank.”

Israeli army operations and attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have left more than 630 Palestinians dead since the escalation of such actions since 7 October, when Hamas and other Palestinian factions launched an assault that left nearly 1,200 dead and some 250 hostages. Palestinian authorities in the Gaza Strip have since counted more than 40,400 dead from Israeli attacks.