The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to the occupied West Bank on Sunday and met with the Palestinian Authority president as he continued a tour of the region amid spiralling tensions over Israel’s war with Hamas.

Blinken and Mahmoud Abbas met in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the de facto Palestinian capital, on his second visit to the region since the Oct. 7 attacks.

The meeting was Blinken’s second with Abbas since the conflict began, but the first to take place in the West Bank.

Abbas told Blinken that there must be an “immediate ceasefire” and humanitarian aid allowed to enter the Gaza Strip, his spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh told Reuters.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Gazans “must not be forcibly displaced”, speaking on a surprise visit Sunday to the Israeli-occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.

“The Secretary reaffirmed the United States´ commitment to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance and resumption of essential services in Gaza and made clear that Palestinians must not be forcibly displaced,” said a summary of the meeting released by the US State Department.

Abbas condemned what he labelled a “genocide” in comments to Blinken, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

“I have no words to describe the genocide and destruction suffered by our Palestinian people in Gaza at the hands of Israel´s war machine, with no regard for the principles of international law,” Abbas was quoted as saying.