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The US secretary of state is due to meet the Palestinian Authority president on Friday.

In a diplomatic move which will be seen by some as controversial, Anthony Blinken is set to meet Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian capital Amman after his brief visit to Israel where he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The meeting, understood to be on the sidelines of meetings with Jordan's King Abdullah, would be the first face-to-face encounter since the current crisis began between the Americans and the leader of the Palestinian Authority (PA) which partially governs the West Bank, but is a bitter political rival to Hamas which controls Gaza.

The 87-year-old Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, has been leader of the Palestinian Authority for the past 18 years. His initial four-year term has been extended repeatedly because of a failure to hold elections in the territory.

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As the Hamas attacks unfolded on Saturday, Abbas, who represents Fatah, the rival political party to Hamas in Gaza, was in his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Responding to the Hamas attacks, he said over the weekend that the Palestinian people "have the right to defend themselves against the terror of settlers and occupation troops," according to a report from the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.

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The meeting with Mr Blinken represents a need to keep as many diplomatic channels open as is possible at a time of acute regional uncertainty.

Abbas is, on the face of it, backed by the Western nations, who hang on to the concept of a 'two-state solution' for the Israel-Palestinian issue.

But sources say he feels deeply let down by America and the West for not, as he sees it, engaging properly with the Palestinian issue.

Reports recently suggest he might soon visit Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The two leaders have a rapport and any visit, especially now, would carry a huge diplomatic message. Palestinian sources did not dismiss reports of a possible meeting soon.

Abbas is broadly unpopular among the Palestinian people who see him as the face of a failed process to pursue Palestinian statehood.

He is a weak player in a crisis that has the potential to spiral very quickly. But the US administration clearly believes that a meeting is worth the flak they will get.

Fears violence will spread to the West Bank

The Palestinian Authority (PA) he leads in the West Bank could play a role in helping to unlock access for humanitarian aid to Gaza, something that will require both Israeli and Egyptian cooperation too.

But beyond that, the PA has a central role to play in ensuring the fallout from the weekend attacks does not spread to the West Bank.

The potential for West Bank violence is, White House officials fear, the most immediate of many challenges ahead. Unrest on the West Bank could embolden Hezbollah, in Lebanon, to up their attacks on Israel's northern border - the domino effect.

Even before this unprecedented crisis, the PA were struggling to contain the rise in support for rival and more extreme Palestinian factions, including Hamas, in the West Bank.

Blinken's meeting will give him a face-to-face read on the situation. But he knows too that the images of the Israeli attacks on Gaza will only embolden Palestinians in the West Bank to rise up.

It is pretty clear, after the last few days, that Hamas's days are over. The only other political structure available to Palestinians is President Abbas's Palestinian Authority. That's the context for a complicated meeting.