
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, the official WAFA news agency reported, in a first call after Israel's veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu led a far-right alliance to a general election victory.
Abbas reiterated his demand that the United States pressure Israel to stop its "crimes against the Palestinian people", the WAFA report said, "including blockades, extrajudicial killings, home demolitions, and settlement construction".