Hamas and Fatah agree to end rift after China talks

Various Palestinian factions, including rivals Hamas and Fatah, have agreed to end their divisions and form a national unity government during negotiations in China that ended, according to Chinese state media. Read more

Tug of war in Gaza: Global players battle for dominance amid post-war rebuilding efforts

Gaza is at the centre of a new geopolitical tug of war as humanitarian aid initiatives by the US, United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Israel compete to reshape the post-war Strip. Read more

The West’s lethal error in the war against Israel

In the current war in the Middle East, it’s a given that a distinction must be drawn between Hamas and the “ordinary” Palestinian Arab residents of Gaza. Read more

The day after

Trying to predict events when it comes to Israel and the region is fraught with uncertainty. Read more

Arafat cartoon exhibit angers PA street

An exhibition of cartoons opened by Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh at the Arafat Museum in Ramallah is stirring the Palestinian street. Read more

Mahmoud Abbas plays Benny Gantz for a fool

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz must have known that hosting Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas at his home in Rosh Ha’ayin would arouse the ire of the right. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have cloaked the outcome of his tête-à-tête last Tuesday night with the octogenarian honcho in Ramallah in typically euphemistic language. Read more

Concern in Israel and US over future of PA after Abbas leaves

The visit of Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs within the Department of State, to Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) last week, led to a renewed discussion on the future of the PA the day after Mahmoud Abbas leaves. Read more

Palestinian Authority, Hamas agree on election timetable

Palestinian factions agreed on Tuesday after a two-day meeting in Cairo to “respect and accept” the results of their upcoming elections, reported Reuters. Read more

Palestinians sigh in relief after Biden victory: ready to resume negotiations and coordination without preconditions

A sigh of relief and satisfaction, disgust for President Donald Trump and anticipation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s weakening, along with fears of renewed tension between Fatah and Hamas – this is how the Palestinian arena reacted to Joe Biden’s victory. Read more

As its popularity is challenged, Hamas keeps watchful eye over its Palestinian rival in Gaza

Tensions between Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip have sparked a number of armed conflicts and smaller scale flare-ups in the last decade. Yet within Gaza there is a web of internal tensions and simmering rivalries between Palestinian factions. So far, these have not posed a threat to Hamas’s iron grip on its enclave, but as its popularity is questioned, that might change one day. Read more

Abbas declares Israeli legislation won’t stop him from paying terrorists

In a meeting with Fatah Party leaders on Sunday, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas declared that he would not stop paying salaries to convicted terrorists and their families, despite new Israeli legislation withholding funds in the amount paid to killers and attackers from taxes collected for the P.A. Read more

PLO-Hamas referendum could boost Trump peace plans

There is little hope that reconciliation talks between Hamas and Fatah will end a decade of bitter internecine feuding which has seen a parallel entrenchment of territorial divisions between them in Gaza and the West Bank…writes David Singer. Read more

Who’s blocking a two-state solution?

Does Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas want peace with Israel?…asks Lawrence Grossman/JNS.org Read more