With the prospect looming of a Middle East peace initiative by a new U.S. administration more sympathetic to Israel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to turn the screw on the Hamas group that has kept Gaza out of his control for a decade. Abbas's Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) on Thursday told Israel it would no longer pay for the electricity Israel supplies to Gaza, a move that could lead to a complete power shutdown in the territory, whose 2 million people already endure blackouts for much of the day. Israel does not engage directly with Hamas, regarding the Islamist group as a terrorist organization. The PA declined to say why it had taken the step, but had already put pressure on Hamas by withholding the Israeli fuel that until two weeks ago powered Gaza's only generating plant, and slashing the salaries of the civil servants who are one of the mainstays of Gaza's struggling economy. Medical workers say health services are on the verge o...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned on Sunday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent statements accusing Palestinians of attempting to “ethnically cleanse” Jews from illegal Israeli settlements located in the occupied West Bank. According to the Associated Press, Abbas flipped the ‘ethnic cleansing’ accusations onto Netanyahu, reiterating a point he had made in the past regarding Israeli actions of seizing occupied Palestinian land for exclusive Israeli use, and the displacement of hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Abbas made the statement during his remarks for the ongoing Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, adding that despite Netanyahu’s remarks, which the United States called “inappropriate and unhelpful,” Abbas remained willing to “continue with the democratic process” by meeting with Netanyahu in Moscow following an invitation from Russia to hold a meeting regarding ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Israeli Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi of...

President Mahmoud Abbas told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority will not remain committed to agreements with Israel, referring to the Oslo Accords of 1993, while violations take place on a daily basis. Abbas told the General Assembly that Israel's refusal to commit to past agreements and release Palestinian prisoners, and continued Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, were destroying the possibility of a Palestinian state. "We therefore declare that we cannot continue to be bound by these agreements and that Israel must assume all of its responsibilities as an occupying power, because the status quo cannot continue and the decisions of the Palestinian Central Council last March are specific and binding." The Central Council meeting had called for an end to security coordination with Israel as long as it continued to violate signed agreements. Despite the call, security coordination with Israel has re...

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has circulated a hard-hitting critique of alleged Israeli violations of the 20-year-old Oslo accords and subsequent agreements ahead of his speech to the UN general assembly in New York later on Wednesday. The comprehensive matrix of claimed violations, seen by the Guardian, was compiled in July and has been shared with US and European officials, among others, and is expected to form the basis of Abbas’s speech. Covering issues from water rights, tax collections and transfer of monies, to settlement building, house demolitions and the continued Israeli military occupation which gives Israel “exclusive control of 62% of the West Bank”, the document argues that “Israel has failed to honour the accords as it has violated many of its provisions”. Western diplomats who have met Abbas recently report he feels exhausted and isolated, and say he will argue that he feels the Oslo agreements have been effectively gutted. A further flavour of what Abb...

RAMALLAH (AFP) -- The Palestinian unity government formed last year in a bid to heal rifts between Hamas and president Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party resigned on Wednesday, an official said. An aide to president Mahmoud Abbas said that prime minister Rami Hamdallah "handed his resignation to Abbas and Abbas ordered him to form a new government." Discussions to form a new government would include consultations with the various Palestinian factions, including Hamas, he said. Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh, however, told the official PA news agency WAFA that Hamdallah had not handed in his resignation. Officials have said the planned dissolution of the government, made up of technocrats, had been under discussion for several months because of the cabinet's inability to operate in the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have condemned the unilateral dissolution of the government, a decision they say they were not consulted over. "No on...

President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday inaugurated the new headquarters of the embassy of Palestine in Sweden. The ceremony took place in the presence of Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem together with other government officials and foreign ambassadors. Abbas praised Sweden for its recognition of Palestine and said the country took a "brave step" which should be emulated by other members of the European Union. "Such recognitions do not mean that we don't want to negotiate with Israel," Abbas said. "We call upon the Israeli government to start negotiations on the basis of international legitimacy and to halt the procedures and sanctions it has taken against the state of Palestine by withholding Palestinian money." Abbas said that the PA would negotiate regardless of international recognition by states or the United Nations Security Council. more

Hamas yesterday expressed its regret that the latest visit by ministers of the unity government to the Gaza Strip did not help in lifting the siege, Quds Press newspaper reported. "The real purpose of this visit is to afford a political cover to strengthen the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, attempting to push the Gazans to surrender to the Israeli occupation's conditions - disarming resistance," Hamas spokesman Salah Al-Bardawil said. "The ministers did not aim to find solutions for problems for the reconstruction of Gaza or facilitating the siege," he said. "They wanted to put Hamas in the corner in order to justify the Israeli siege." He said that this visit is "part of the tactics of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas" to cover the "crime" of the siege on the Strip and "putting off the reconstruction" and "starving" its children. "The ministers remained in Gaza for a week, but had no...

President Mahmoud Abbas signed letters to join nearly 20 international treaties -- including the Rome Statute that guarantees accession to the International Criminal Court -- Wednesday night, only a day after the UN Security Council rejected a resolution supporting an end to the Israeli occupation. "We want to complain about the harm caused to us and to our land," Abbas said in a statement aired on state TV before he signed the agreements, according to Palestinian official news agency Wafa. "But who shall we complain to? The Security Council refused our request. Where will we go? To the international organizations," he added. The ICC can prosecute individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, and Palestinian plans to become a party to the court have been strongly opposed by Israel and the United States. The move would allow Palestine to prosecute Israel for crimes committed during the summer offensive that left around 2,200 Pales...

President Mahmoud Abbas said he supported Egypt's crackdown on tunnels linking the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to the Sinai Peninsula and any other action the country took to protect itself from militants, according to a media report Thursday. "We have supported all the precautionary measures taken by the Egyptian authorities to close the tunnels and stop the trafficking of arms and the passage of people between Gaza and the Sinai," Abbas said in an interview with Egyptian magazine Al-Ahram Al-Arabi due to be published on Saturday, extracts of which were published by MENA news agency. "We will continue to support any measure protecting Egypt from danger," Abbas was quoted as saying. Since the 2013 ouster of president Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian army, the country's new authorities have accused Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood of conspiring with Hamas. The Egyptian military has stepped up the destruction of tunnels from Gaza that it says are used by the P...

US Secretary of State John Kerry is set for talks Thursday with the Palestinian leader on easing regional tensions, after Israel approved new settler homes in east Jerusalem despite mounting unrest. The new settlement construction was announced on Wednesday just hours after suspected Jewish extremists torched a West Bank mosque, in another development likely to inflame tempers in an already heated atmosphere. Months of unrest have escalated in recent days, spreading from annexed East Jerusalem to the West Bank and Palestinian communities across Israel, raising fears of a new Palestinian uprising. Kerry was due to hold talks with President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman on Thursday, after arriving in Jordan late Wednesday to discuss the situation in East Jerusalem and other regional issues at a private dinner with King Abdullah II. So far no meeting between Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been scheduled, the US State Department said. Kerry's arrival in the reg...

Israel's closure of the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to all visitors following the shooting of a Jewish hardliner is tantamount to a "declaration of war," President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday. "This dangerous Israeli escalation is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and its sacred places and on the Arab and Islamic nation," his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina quoted him as saying. "We hold the Israeli government responsible for this dangerous escalation in Jerusalem that has reached its peak through the closure of the Al-Aqsa mosque this morning," he added. Abu Rdeina added, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, that Abbas confirmed that “Jerusalem and its holy Muslim and Christian places are a red line and we won’t accept any harm to them.” Abu Rdeina said that Israel’s decision to seal Al-Aqsa mosque for the first time “was a brazen challenge and dangerous behavior, and will lead to more tension and instability...

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian President Abbas on Friday said that a return to direct negotiations was impossible and accused Israel of committing "genocide" during a speech at the United Nations during the 69th annual General Debate. Speaking a day after he said that the speech speech would unveil a new way forward for the Palestinian cause, Abbas slammed Israel for having "predetermined" the result of the negotiations process so far. Abbas had promised to submit a resolution to call for a timeline for the end of the Israeli occupation, but his speech offered few new ideas and even fewer strategies. "The coming resolution will be based on UN General Assembly resolution 194 with added elements from the more recent Arab Peace Initiative," he said, stressing that there would be little new in the resolution. He also told the United Nations that "the hour of independence for Palestine has arrived," adding: "There is an occupation that...

NEW YORK (AFP) -- US Secretary of State John Kerry met with President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the situation in Gaza in the wake of the Israeli offensive, a state department official said. The meeting in New York came as leaders converged for the United Nations General Assembly, and a day after Abbas gave a speech at Cooper Union vowing to present a new timetable for peace talks with Israel. Kerry and Abbas agreed on the importance of providing humanitarian aid in Gaza, where a 50-day assault by Israel destroyed homes and infrastructure in densely populated Gaza, leaving more than 100,000 Palestinians homeless in the long term, according to the United Nations. The top US diplomat also reiterated Washington's support for a two-state solution and its willingness to support negotiations. more

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Only 10 percent of Palestinians in Gaza would vote for current President Mahmoud Abbas if elections were held now, according the results of a recent poll released Tuesday. Some 29.8 percent would vote for senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, who headed the former government in the Strip, the poll, conducted by the Gaza-based House of Wisdom Institute, showed. Twenty-eight percent would choose jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, and 32.4 percent would choose a different candidate. Meanwhile, the Fatah and Hamas movements would be neck in neck in legislative elections, with 30.8 percent for Fatah and 30 percent for Hamas. Regarding the Israeli assault on Gaza, 73.6 percent of those surveyed were satisfied with the performance of the militant factions in "resisting and withstanding" Israeli forces. A plurality thought the Israeli aggression unified Palestinians, but thought that disputes between Hamas and Fatah would continue in the aftermath of...

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas will ask his French counterpart Francois Hollande for official recognition of Palestine in an upcoming meeting this week, the Palestinian foreign minister said Sunday. Riyad al-Maliki told Ma'an that Abbas is due to meet Hollande in Paris on Friday before arriving in New York. Abbas will urge the French president to support plans to submit a draft resolution to the UN Security Council demanding that Israel withdraw from occupied Palestinian territories. "The world is more convinced now than ever before that Israel has been thwarting international efforts by stealing Palestinian land to build settlements, and that has created a much better atmosphere for a positive international response to Palestinian demands," al-Maliki said. "We are going there (UN Security Council) to say that it's time the world took a clear position towards occupation which should come to an end after things have reached an impasse."...

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A Hamas spokesman on Sunday said Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas should stop conducting dialogue through the media, a day after Abbas accused the group of running a "shadow government" in Gaza. Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters that "president Abbas' remarks against Hamas and the resistance are unjustified and the sources of information and figures he relied on were incorrect and have nothing to do with the truth." The remarks, he added, reflect injustice toward "our people and the resistance who made this great victory." Abu Zuhri added that Hamas and Fatah agreed to have a meeting soon for further talks and to discuss implementation of the terms of the reconciliation agreement both movements have signed. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday accused Hamas of running a "shadow government" in the Gaza Strip and said that the unity government between Hamas and the PLO must assert its authority in the b...

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday declared a long-term ceasefire agreement between Israel and Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip. In a short televised address, Abbas said the agreement would go into effect at 7 p.m. For his part, deputy chief of Hamas' politburo Mousa Abu Marzouq wrote on his Twitter account that "talks have ended. We have reached understandings crowning our people's steadfastness and our resistance's triumph. We are awaiting a statement setting the zero point and end to the aggression." A well-placed Palestinian source confirmed that Gaza border crossings would be open in tandem with an extended ceasefire. The source explained that Egypt would issue a statement calling for a comprehensive and mutual ceasefire together with opening Gaza's crossings for the entry of construction material. The Gaza fishing zone will also be increased. In addition, the source said, Israel has pledged to stop targeted assas...

GAZA CITY (AFP) -- Hamas has signed a proposal for the Palestinians to apply to join the International Criminal Court at which legal action could be taken against Israel, a senior official of the movement said Saturday. "Hamas signed the document which (Palestinian) president (Mahmoud Abbas) put forth as a condition that all factions approve, before he goes to sign the Rome Statute, which paves the way for Palestine's membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC)," Hamas deputy leader Mussa Abu Marzouq wrote on his Facebook page. The Palestinian declaration came after two days of talks in Qatar between Abbas and Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal, whose movement is the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip. Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP that the Islamic Jihad, the second most powerful force in Gaza, "is currently the only Palestinian faction that has not signed" the document. "They are studying the possibility of signing," he adde...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has backed calls by Hamas for an end to the economic blockade of the Gaza Strip as a condition for a ceasefire. At least 649 Palestinians and 31 Israelis have been killed in the past 15 days of fighting, officials say. Israel launched its offensive on 8 July with the declared objective of stopping rocket fire from Gaza. Meanwhile, several airlines suspended flights to Israel after a rocket from Gaza landed near Ben Gurion airport. Fighting continued overnight on Tuesday. An air strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip left at least five people dead. An Israeli soldier was also killed. A Palestinian woman whom the BBC filmed being pulled from the rubble of a Gaza blast on Sunday also died from her injuries, her doctor said. Ten of her relatives were killed in the blast. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh phoned President Mahmoud Abbas for the first time Friday after the announcement of a new inter-Palestinian reconciliation deal. Haniyeh emphasized the importance of implementing the agreement according to the set timeline. The Hamas leader said that it was critical to ensure that there was a political and financial safety net to protect the deal, and to improve trust between the two sides. The agreement would reintegrate Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, into the PLO, which currently controls the West Bank. more