Saudi Arabia last week ordered Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to either accept an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal being put together by the Trump administration, or resign, according to an Israeli report Sunday.
A Hamas spokesman on Thursday expressed disapproval of a Palestinian Authority official’s announcement that the PA has resumed full security coordination with Israel.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was unexpectedly summoned this week to Saudi Arabia for impromptu meetings with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed. The Palestinian leader received the call while in Egypt, where he discussed with his counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi efforts to jump-start peace negotiations with Israel as well as the unity deal recently forged between Abbas’ Fatah faction and Hamas, which was brokered by Cairo.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman on Wednesday about American peace efforts and reconciliation, the official PA news website Wafa reported.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged that Egypt will continue its efforts to resume peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, according to a statement from Sisi’s office Monday.
The United Nations has earmarked some $1.3 billion to fund Palestinian legal campaigns against Israel and to support the creation of an independent Palestinian state, in what experts are calling an unprecedented act singling out the Jewish state at the world body.
The United States called Thursday for the Hamas terror group to disarm and renounce violence before being allowed to implement a highly touted unity deal with Palestinian rival Fatah, in a first detailed response to the agreement.
As part of the intra-Palestinian reconciliation, Hamas has pledged not to perpetrate terrorist attacks from Judea and Samaria, the London-based pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Sunday.
High-level Hamas and Fatah delegations are scheduled to participate in reconciliation talks in Cairo on Tuesday in a bid to start work on ending the decade-long territorial division between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
With the ink on the reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas not yet dry, with the mutual declarations of ‘real reconciliation on behalf of Palestinian national strength’ still reverberating in the background, the first signs of division over the implementation of understandings began to surface over the weekend.
A new round of Palestinian reconciliation talks experienced its first sign of trouble on Tuesday as the Hamas terror group said it would not give up its vast weapons arsenal, putting it at odds with both the rival Fatah movement and Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday spoke out against efforts by the rival Palestinian factions Fatah and the Gaza-ruling terror group Hamas to form a unity government.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that he would not be prepared to accept Hamas keeping its armed forces in Gaza like Hezbollah does in Lebanon and demanded ‘full control’ of the Strip, including over the border, security and all the ministries.
PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and several other government ministers are set to travel to Gaza Monday morning in a historic bid to work on ending the territorial division between the West Bank and Gaza.
The son of a prominent Hamas leader shocked members of the U.N. Human Rights Council, including representatives of the Palestinian Authority, declaring in testimony that the PA is the ‘greatest enemy of the Palestinian people.’
The Trump administration is backing legislation that would suspend US financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority until it ends what critics say is a long-standing practice of rewarding Palestinians who kill Americans and Israelis.
Ismail Haniyeh, political chief of Hamas, said the organization is ready to talk reconciliation with the rival government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas without preconditions.
The Trump administration is trying to arrange a summit between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Hebrew newspaper Yisrael Hayom reported Sunday.
The Palestinian Authority Preventative Security arrested Ayman Qawasmeh, the chairman of the Minbar al-Huriyya radio station, in Hebron late Sunday evening, a senior PA security official said on Monday.
US President Donald Trump is expected to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month, Haaretz reported Wednesday citing local officials.