PA could return to power in Gaza if 'solution' found to Israel-Palestine conflict: Abbas

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has said that the Palestinian Authority could return to power in Gaza only if a "comprehensive solution" is found for the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

"We (the Palestinian Authority) will fully assume our responsibilities within the framework of a comprehensive political solution that includes all of the (occupied) West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza," Abbas told on Sunday visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

At a congressional hearing late last month, Blinken said that "what would make the most sense would be for an effective and revitalised Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza."

There cannot be a "reversion of the status quo with Hamas running Gaza," Blinken said.

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas is a rival of Abbas's Fatah party.

Hamas took over the coastal territory from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, after being blocked from exercising real power despite winning a legitimate parliamentary election the previous year.

Israel fully withdrew its troops and illegal settlers from Gaza in 2005, but imposed a crippling blockade after Hamas came to the power.