The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip said on Friday it will participate in local elections set for October, after boycotting the last round four years ago.
Its rival, the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority headed by president Mahmoud Abbas, has said local and municipal polls will be held on October 8 throughout the Palestinian territories.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Wednesday the Palestinian leadership’s disappointment regarding a report recently released by the Middle East Quartet, official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
While visiting the grave of later Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on the occasion of the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Abbas said that the report did not fulfill its peaceful mission.
"We are sorry that this is its stance, and we hope that the Security Council will not approve this report,” Abbas said.
President Mahmoud Abbas hosted Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Samih Shukri in the presidential headquarters in Ramallah on Wednesday, according to a statement released by WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency.
The Palestinian Central Elections Commission (CEC) has started preparing for local council elections in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip to be held on Oct. 8, CEC Chairman Hanna Nasser said on Monday.
Speaking at a news conference at the CEC offices in the West Bank city of al-Bireh, Nasser said that the commission would do everything necessary to “guarantee freedom of elections,” including the freedom to run as a candidate and to run a campaign.
In light of the recent Cabinet’s decision assigning the date for Local Council Elections on October 8th, 2016, the CEC Commissioners convened today at CEC premises in Ramallah and through videoconference with Gaza where they approved the Local Elections Timeline.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gave a speech in front of the European Union parliament on Thursday regarding the current state of Palestine and its people within the occupied territory and around the world.
Abbas slammed the international community’s complacency with Israel’s illegal occupation, saying: “their [Palestinians’] history, heritage, identity and geopolitical entity were historically massacred in the twentieth century, and that the massacre is still ongoing through the twenty first century under the eyes and ears of the international community.”
The Palestinian cabinet on Tuesday, which meets weekly in Ramallah, have announced a decision to hold municipal elections on October 8, according to a statement released by the cabinet.
The cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, appointed a central elections committee to start preparations for the upcoming elections and gave the local governance minister the responsibility of following up on organizing efforts and facilitating elections with the central elections committee.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, in a statement Monday, that Israel’s recent approval to disburse $21.3m in aid to illegal settlements in the West Bank means that Israel practically started to annex the settlements.
Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah issued a statement decrying Israel's national water company Mekorot's decision to cut off water supplies to several Palestinian cities and villages.
“Israel wants to prevent Palestinians from leading a dignified life and uses its control over our water resources to this end; while illegal Israeli settlements enjoy uninterrupted water service, Palestinians are forced to spend great sums of money to buy water that is theirs in the first place,” Hamdallah said.
A Hamas delegation is to visit Cairo in the coming days to hold meetings with Egyptian officials to resume reconciliation talks regarding the Gaza Strip and Egypt’s shared border, an Egyptian security source told Ma’an.
According to the source, who preferred to remain anonymous, the Hamas delegation will be joined for the first time by representatives from the movement’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, to travel to Cairo between Tuesday and Wednesday through the Rafah border crossing.
