News

Palestinian movement Hamas elected ex-Gaza Strip chief Ismail Haniya as its new leader on Saturday, days after revising its founding charter to ease its stance on Israel.

Agreement reached after three days of talks in Moscow paving the way for the formation of a new National Council.

The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority has agreed to form a unity government with rival organisation Hamas, Al Jazeera has learned.

The agreement was reached late on Tuesday after a three-day negotiation in the Russian capital, Moscow.

The two organisations will form a new National Council, which will include Palestinians in exile and hold elections.

The recently concluded Fatah congress only intensified the aimless drift that characterises Palestinian condition today.

Amman - To Mahmoud Abbas's credit, he has shown more interest in convening the general conference, the supreme body of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, Fatah, than did his predecessor Yasser Arafat.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The recent rapprochement between Hamas and dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan and the "Democratic Reformist Current", which Dahlan formed with some Fatah leaders after his dismissal in 2011, was predicted. Dahlan has been repeatedly praising Hamas — most recently during an interview with Dream TV Egypt on Oct.

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in his capacity as the chairman of the Palestinian Authority's ruling party the Fatah movement, approved on Saturday a decision to discharge senior Fatah leader and lawmaker Jihad Tummaleh from the Fatah movement.

The Palestinian Authority is buying time to avoid an electoral defeat, analysts say.

The fate of local elections in the occupied Palestinian territories remains unclear as Palestinian officials in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip continue to trade blame for the ongoing political impasse.

On Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank, announced that it  would postpone the municipal elections for up to four months.

In preparations for the nomination process which will commence on 16 August, the CEC concluded a two-day training for accredited representatives of political parties at the regional level in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The training targeted 150 party representatives and tackled issues pertaining to elections nomination such as the nomination period, the legal requirements for nomination, nomination applications and enclosures for the lists and their candidates. Several publications on nomination were distributed to attendees during training.

The CEC held today a training session for representatives of political parties in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the process of elections nomination which will be open during the period 16-25 August 2016 according to the published elections timeline.

The meeting aimed at explaining the legal requirements and procedures of nomination to enable parties’ representatives to manage and follow up the nomination of their candidates.

 The European Union’s 28 foreign ministers endorsed on Monday the French-led initiative to hold a multilateral conference to restart Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.

 The EU’s Foreign Affairs Council adopted the resolution to back the French initiative and reiterated “its support for a just, sustainable and comprehensive resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and peace and stability in the region," according to a statement released following the decision.