The Palestinian Authority (PA) has rejected accusations from Hamas and reports in Israeli media that it has been preventing Palestinians in the blockaded Gaza Strip from leaving the territory for medical treatment, and said Israel was responsible for denying Gazans the exit permits, which has had fatal consequences in recent weeks. Corroborating earlier reports that the Ramallah-based government was denying culpability, head of the PA’s medical referral department in the southern district Bassam al-Badri told Ma’an that Israel was accountable for the deterioration of the medical situation in Gaza, by denying exit to thousands of patients via the Erez crossing so that they may be treated in hospitals in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. Al-Badri said that only 50 percent of medical permits were approved as a result of the Israeli restrictions. Health care inside Gaza has greatly suffered as part of the decade-long Israeli siege, with Israel limiting medical equipment allowed in a...

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...

A Palestinian policeman was killed Sunday night during armed clashes that erupted in Balata refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus, after Palestinian forces raided the camp to detain “wanted fugitives,” Palestinian security forces said. The clashes left another policeman and at least two gunmen injured -- one of whom was detained while the other managed to escape. Local sources told Ma’an that Palestinian security forces ambushed the camp at the eastern cemetery dressed as civilians, sparking clashes with gunmen that lasted some 15 minutes. Governor of Nablus Akram Rujoub said that Palestinian security forces officer Hasaan Ali Abu al-Hajj was killed after being shot in the head, and was declared dead sometime later after succumbing to the injury. Rujoub noted that Abu al-Hajj was newly married, just six months ago. more

JENIN (Ma'an) -- Clashes erupted early Friday for a short duration between Palestinian security forces and several armed men in the northern occupied West Bank district of Jenin, Palestinian security sources told Ma’an. Palestinian security forces reportedly intervened to stop live firing as Islamic Jihad-affiliated men celebrated the release of Yahiya Bassam al-Saadi from Israeli prison, according to security sources. Sources added that the clashes erupted for a few minutes. No injuries with live fire were reported. However, four security officers were reportedly hit and injured with rocks. more

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has “sought to undermine Turkish efforts aiming to lift the siege on Gaza”, Al-Resalah newspaper reported a senior member of the Turkish Development and Justice Party saying yesterday. Ahmed Farol told the paper: “The PA adopts a hostile position towards Gaza for political reasons which are known, ignoring the humanitarian repercussions for what it is doing.” “Turkey offered several proposals, throughout its current discussions with Israel, to alleviate the siege on Gaza and sort out its problems, mainly electricity. However, the PA never supported any of them.” He added that there were many attempts by the PA to undermine Turkey’s efforts. more

Hanadi al-Qayid looked tired. The 45-year-old lost two of her children when fighter jets shelled her home in the central Gaza Strip city of Deir al-Balah during Israel’s assault in the summer of 2014. Now she attends a regular sit-in demonstration outside a branch of the Palestinian Authority office responsible for the welfare of the families of the dead and wounded. Relatives of the martyrs, are they are known, gather weekly in Gaza City to protest the decision to suspend the payment of allowances to families of the those slain by Israel in 2014. “Officials tend to say that it is a great honor for them to serve the families of martyrs. But we have become beggars due to these offensive practices,” al-Qayid told The Electronic Intifada. Walaa, 15, and Ahmad, 12, were not the first of al-Qayid’s children to lose their lives to the Israeli military. In 2003, their oldest brother, Mahmoud, was shot and killed by the army and as if that wasn’t enough, her husband, Said, suffered a heart...

Thousands of Palestinian on Monday took part in the military funeral procession of Palestinian Authority police officer Amjad Sukkari, who was shot dead the day before when he shot and wounded three Israeli soldiers west of Ramallah. Mourners marched from Rafidia hospital to Shuhada Square in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, chanting national slogans applauding Palestinian "martyrs." They reportedly waved Palestinian flags as well as photos and posters of Sukkari. Sukkari's body was then taken to his home village of Jammaain south of Nablus, where he was buried in the village cemetery following funeral prayers. Nablus Governor Akram Rajoub was present at the funeral along with officials from the PA and PLO. Representatives of Palestinian factions delivered speeches at the cemetery during the burial. The PA has not officially commented on Sukkari's actions, although Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials have hailed his attack as a "rejection" of the PA...

The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health sent a medical aid convoy worth over five million shekels ($1,289,720) to Gaza from the ministry's warehouse in Nablus, a statement said Wednesday. The shipment included ten truckloads worth of medical supplies and was sent under direct orders from Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. The supplies included cancer treatment medications, kidney medications and other supplies needed by residents in the besieged coastal enclave. The ministry noted that the PA has sent numerous truckloads of medical supplies to the Gaza Strip, totaling at least $5.2 million in 2015, not including the most recent shipment. Gaza's ministry of health warned earlier this year that the lives of Gazans were at risk if the Israeli-Egyptian blockade continued. more

Tonight, Hamas official Ismail Radwan called for a third intifada on Al-Aqsa TV and other media outlets: “Our people in the West Bank, Gaza and inside [Israel], tomorrow is the day of rage, the day of confrontation, and the day of renewing the intifada.” Hamas is attempting to ride popular sentiment and ignite a fire which the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s biggest asset in sustaining the occupation, cannot control. A whole generation of Palestinian youth have grown under Israeli occupation in the post-second intifada era, along with the PA’s “security coordination” with Israel, and sentiment against the US-funded PA is widespread. While the PA typically collaborates to repress Palestinian demonstrations, as it did with brute force in the beginning of the latest protests, officials have opted to let them continue for fear the demonstrators may turn on it, finally eroding and collapsing the PA. Meanwhile, support for Hamas has steadily increased as its strategy of military confronta...

NEW YORK (AFP) -- A US judge Monday ordered Palestinian authorities to post $10 million in cash or bond while they appeal a ruling to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to American victims of attacks. Judge George Daniels said the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization must also deposit $1 million every 30 days, pending appeal of the February verdict. A New York jury found the PA and PLO liable for six attacks in Jerusalem between 2002-2004, awarding American victims and their families damages that amounted to $655.5 million. Daniels said the judgment in favor of the plaintiffs would be entered in the next 60 days, but would be stayed pending appeal as long as the deposits were made with the clerk of the court. Two weeks ago, the Obama administration urged Daniels to "carefully consider" the PA's precarious finances in deciding whether to impose a bond requirement. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised "significant concerns" ...

Arab and Turkish media have carried reports, picked up by Israeli media, claiming Israel and Hamas were holding talks. The talks were reportedly aimed at reaching an eight- or 10-year truce, with Israel removing its blockade on the coastal Palestinian territory. Israel on Monday denied it was engaged in "any meetings with Hamas, neither directly, nor via other countries or intermediaries". more

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...

Hamas, on Friday, organized a march in Jabaliya refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip, to protest the national unity government's alleged neglect of the coastal enclave, as well as policies of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. According to Ma'an News Agency, the march set off from mosques across the refugee camp following Friday prayers, and ended at a home destroyed during last summer's Israeli offensive on Gaza. Hamas leader Muhammad Abu Askar said before the march that that while the unity government had been formed to serve all Palestinians, one year on the situation in Gaza is continuing to worsen. "Hamdallah's government prevented employment in Gaza, and today UNRWA has stopped hiring and is shrinking its services for refugees and those who were affected by the war." UNWRA, the largest service provider for refugees in the Gaza Strip, announced in February that it had been forced to stop a cash assistance program for tens of thousands...

(Reuters) - Palestinian cabinet ministers from the occupied West Bank cut short a visit to Gaza on Monday over disputes between the Western-backed Fatah movement and Islamist group Hamas which dominates the territory, officials said. The truncated visit reflected tensions threatening a year-old "unity" government, harming internationally-backed efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip after a war with Israel and complicating Palestinian statehood ambitions. Palestinians in Gaza had hoped Fatah, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Hamas could resolve a crisis over salaries owed to about 40,000 public servants hired by Hamas in the past eight years it has dominated the Gaza Strip. Resolving the issue is crucial to Western hopes of Abbas's government taking control of Gaza crossings and facilitating an effort to rebuild tens of thousands of buildings destroyed during the five-week July-August war. An official close to the 11-member West Bank delegation accused ...

The majority of Palestinians support a decision by the PLO to end security cooperation with Israel, according to the results of a poll released Tuesday by the Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah National University in Nablus. The poll, conducted from March 26-28, asked 1,360 Palestinians about their views on security coordination, the Israeli elections, the peace process, and national reconciliation. Around 59 percent of those interviewed said they wanted the PA to halt security coordination with Israel, while only 26 percent believe that the PA will actually adopt a resolution by the Central Council to end cooperation. Following Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu's explicit opposition to a Palestinian state during his election campaign, 72 percent support going to the UN to obtain recognition of Palestine on 1967 borders. Over 20 percent of those interviewed say they support one state solution to the conflict while 32 percent called for the dissoluti...

A new report by the Israeli newspaper 'Jerusalem Post', based on unnamed sources within the Palestinian Authority, claims that the PA has agreed to pursue no formal charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court (ICC), in exchange for the release of tax money that had been illegally seized by Israeli authorities. The report came after an announcement on Friday by the Israeli government that they would return to the Palestinian Authority some of the $500 million that they had illegally seized since January, but would not return the entire amount - instead subtracting from the total an arbitrary charge for electric, water and hospital bills. This amount will also not include the tax monies from the month of March, just January and February. So far the Israeli government has not made any statement on whether or when it will release the March tax funds. These are taxes collected by Israel on goods imported into the Palestinian Territories - since the PA does not cont...

JERUSALEM — Israel says it will resume the transfer Palestinian tax revenues that it has been withholding as punishment for unilateral Palestinian actions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Friday the decision was made following the recommendation of Israel’s security establishment and because of humanitarian considerations. Earlier this year, Israel withheld tax transfers it collects for the cash-strapped government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after he joined the International Criminal Court — a move potentially paving the way for a war crimes investigation of Israel. more

Palestinian prime minister, Rami Hamdallah is expected to arrive in Gaza today at 1:00 PM for a two-day visit, to look into the issues in Gaza, including the employees crisis, the halted reconstruction process and the electricity cuts. A press conference will be held upon his arrival in hotel on Gaza shore, where he will meet with Fatah and Hamas leaders. PA spokesperson, Ihab Bseiso said this will be the first visit to Gaza since last October. Hamdallah was supposed to visit Gaza on 8 November of last year, however the visit was cancelled after the bombardment of Fatah leaders' homes in Gaza. more

Two Palestinian children were injured, one seriously, in clashes with Palestinian security forces near Balata refugee camp in eastern Nablus on Friday. Locals told Ma'an that Mohammad Rakiz Abu Assab, 10, was shot in the stomach and taken to Rafidia hospital in a serious condition, while Mohammad Raed al-Hajj, 11, was shot in the foot and taken to al-Ittihad hospital. Security sources told Ma'an that clashes broke out between security forces and dozens of youths on al-Quds street near the refugee camp after the young Palestinians closed the road and began throwing rocks on the street. Palestinian Legislative Council Member Jamal al-Tirawi told Ma'an that responsibility lay with President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to prevent the situation in Balata from deteriorating further. more

Hamas on Saturday released a series of videos which it says contain confessions by agents working for the Palestinian Authority who passed information to Israel that was used to attack the Gaza Strip. In at least one case, Hamas says that information a collaborator passed to his PA handler was used by Israel to target and kill one of its members. One of the videos contains what Hamas says are confessions from PA officers that they were behind a recent series of car burnings that were intended to sow chaos and instability in Gaza. The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has dismissed the Hamas claims. Confessions of a collaborator? One video shows a person who is described as “one of the spies collaborating with the Preventive Security who was arrested due to his suspicious behavior of monitoring resistance fighters” during last summer’s Israeli assault on Gaza. The Preventive Security is one of the intelligence agencies of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud A...