The Dutch news agency (ANP) reported today, Monday, that Prime Minister Mark Rutte spoke with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas about preventing the war in Israel and Gaza from expanding to the region. The agency stated that Rutte also discussed the importance of envisioning an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, describing the two-state solution as "the only way to achieve stability in the entire region." Rutte's visit comes following the confirmation by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday of the death of a 33-year-old Dutch woman who had traveled to Gaza to visit her family shortly before the attack by Palestinian militants from Hamas on Israel.