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Palestinians Reject ‘Hamas’ Decision to Appoint Municipal Councils

Palestinians sit with their belongings in a street outside their destroyed house after an Israeli missile targeted a nearby Hamas site, in Gaza City on March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Palestinians sit with their belongings in a street outside their destroyed house after an Israeli missile targeted a nearby Hamas site, in Gaza City on March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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Palestinians Reject ‘Hamas’ Decision to Appoint Municipal Councils

Palestinians sit with their belongings in a street outside their destroyed house after an Israeli missile targeted a nearby Hamas site, in Gaza City on March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Palestinians sit with their belongings in a street outside their destroyed house after an Israeli missile targeted a nearby Hamas site, in Gaza City on March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

The Palestinian government, factions and civil society have rejected a decision by Hamas movement to appoint the head and members of Rafah’s municipal council.

PA Local Governance Minister Majdi al-Saleh said Hamas’ move prevents citizens from practicing their democratic rights to choose whoever they see fit for the council membership.

Saleh warned of the dangerous encroachment on the local government minister’s powers, affirming that the appointment would impact the work of municipalities and services provided to citizens.

The minister accused Hamas of rejecting to hold municipal elections in the Gaza Strip similar to the West Bank.

According to reliable sources, Hamas is willing to appoint new councils for municipalities and local authorities in Gaza. It has formed several committees from the local community to choose new members.

Ibrahim Radwan, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Local Government (affiliated with Hamas), said the appointments carried out by the movement will now move to bigger municipalities in its efforts to form more effective councils.

However, questions have emerged on the timing of such moves.

Palestinian factions agreed on rejecting Hamas’ appointment of municipal councils, saying it would undermine the democratic process.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement wants to hold the elections to end divisions and give the winner power to rule the West Bank and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

But Fatah Central Committee member Dalal Salama said that Hamas’ latest moves are a sign of rejection to Abbas’ decision and an attempt to quell the people in Gaza by preventing them from taking part in the elections.

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Arab World

Hezbollah Chief Says Hopes for Iran-US Deal and That It Includes Lebanon

A poster of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (L) is displayed near another of the group's late leader Hassan Nasrallah outside shelters at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where displaced Lebanese and Syrian refugees take refuge by the city of Hermel in Lebanon's northeastern Bekaa valley on February 4, 2026. (AFP)
A poster of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (L) is displayed near another of the group's late leader Hassan Nasrallah outside shelters at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where displaced Lebanese and Syrian refugees take refuge by the city of Hermel in Lebanon's northeastern Bekaa valley on February 4, 2026. (AFP)
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Hezbollah Chief Says Hopes for Iran-US Deal and That It Includes Lebanon

A poster of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (L) is displayed near another of the group's late leader Hassan Nasrallah outside shelters at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where displaced Lebanese and Syrian refugees take refuge by the city of Hermel in Lebanon's northeastern Bekaa valley on February 4, 2026. (AFP)
A poster of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (L) is displayed near another of the group's late leader Hassan Nasrallah outside shelters at the Imam Ali Housing Compound, where displaced Lebanese and Syrian refugees take refuge by the city of Hermel in Lebanon's northeastern Bekaa valley on February 4, 2026. (AFP)

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem expressed hope Sunday for an agreement between Iran and the United States and that Lebanon, where Israel and the Iran-backed group are at war, would be part of its terms.

Hezbollah and Israel have clashed since the group drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 by firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Iranian officials have said an understanding with Washington to halt the regional war will include Lebanon.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that US President Donald Trump had reaffirmed his support for Israel's right "to defend itself against threats on all fronts, including in Lebanon".

"God willing, this agreement will be finalized and there are signs of its completion, and accordingly that we too will be among those included in this agreement -- an agreement of a full cessation of hostilities," Qassem said in a televised address broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television channel.

The speech marked the anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from south Lebanon in 2000 after around two decades of occupation and following persistent pressure from Hezbollah.

Qassem said that Iran, which has provided Hezbollah with funding and weapons for decades, "is on top" and would emerge from the regional war "with its head high".

Expectations of a Middle East deal come as Lebanon prepares for a fourth round of direct talks with Israel in Washington on June 2 and 3, preceded by a meeting between military delegations at the Pentagon on May 29.

- 'Existential threat' -

Qassem again repeated his group's rejection of direct talks, charging that key Israel ally Washington "is not an honest broker".

"Direct negotiations are completely unacceptable and are a pure gain for Israel," he said, addressing Lebanese authorities who last year committed to disarming Hezbollah and then banned its military activities after the latest war erupted.

"Abandon the direct negotiations and do not give to America so that it gives to Israel... Return to the national understanding," he added.

"Don't be with them and stab us in the back. You won't gain anything, and it's better for you to stand with your country."

Despite heavy losses in 2023-2024 hostilities with Israel and the current war, Hezbollah refuses to disarm, arguing that its weapons are an internal Lebanese matter and not up for discussion in Washington.

"Disarmament means stripping Lebanon of its defensive capability and the capability of the resistance (Hezbollah) and this people, paving the way for annihilation," he said.

"Disarmament is annihilation and we cannot accept it."

A state monopoly on weapons demanded by Lebanese authorities "at this stage is aimed at targeting the resistance and is an Israeli project" whose objective is to "annihilate the resistance".

"All the facts prove that we and our people face an existential threat," Qassem said.

"We will not bow, even if the whole world turns against us."

Arab World

Israeli Strikes Pound South, East Lebanon

Plumes of smoke billow from southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun, Lebanon May 24, 2026. (Reuters)
Plumes of smoke billow from southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun, Lebanon May 24, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israeli Strikes Pound South, East Lebanon

Plumes of smoke billow from southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun, Lebanon May 24, 2026. (Reuters)
Plumes of smoke billow from southern Lebanon following Israeli strikes, as seen from Marjeyoun, Lebanon May 24, 2026. (Reuters)

Israeli strikes hit south and east Lebanon on Sunday, state media reported, a day after 11 people were killed in a single raid on the south despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Saturday's strike in Sir al-Gharbiyeh "resulted in a massacre whose final toll is 11 dead including a child and six women, and nine wounded including four children and a woman," Lebanon's health ministry said in a statement.

Israel's military has continued to strike what it says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon despite a ceasefire that began on April 17 and that was recently extended for several weeks.

The Iran-backed group has also maintained attacks on Israeli targets in southern Lebanon and across the border, including firing rockets on Sunday at Israeli troops operating on Lebanese territory.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported Israeli strikes on multiple locations in south and east Lebanon on Sunday, in some cases causing casualties.

Some of the raids came before the Israeli military issued two evacuation warnings covering more than a dozen villages in Lebanon's south and the eastern Bekaa valley.

An AFP correspondent saw large clouds of smoke rising after strikes on the south's Nabatieh and Zawtar al-Sharqiyah.

Lebanon's civil defense agency said early on Sunday that its regional facility in Nabatieh had been destroyed by an overnight Israeli strike.

An AFP photographer saw civil defense personnel recovering equipment and using a stretcher to remove oxygen bottles from the rubble.

The Israeli army did not immediately provide any comment on the strike in response to an inquiry from AFP's Jerusalem bureau.

- Iran -

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah, whom the US sanctioned this week, said Sunday that "major transformations are taking place in the region", amid anticipation that a US-Iranian agreement to end the Middle East war was close.

Iran "has made its agreement with the United States conditional on stopping the war in Lebanon", he said, according to a statement.

On Saturday, Hezbollah said its chief Naim Qassem had received a message from Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, saying Iran's latest proposal through Pakistani mediators emphasized "the demand to include Lebanon" in the broader ceasefire.

Fadlallah said that "the war will not just stop in Iran, but across the whole region, particularly in Lebanon", urging Lebanese authorities to "take advantage of this regional umbrella... which will have repercussions on us".

Lebanese authorities recently began landmark direct talks with Israel under US auspices, and have insisted the discussions must be independent from the Iran-US negotiations.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Under the terms of the ceasefire published by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks".

Israeli troops who invaded Lebanon are also operating inside an Israeli-occupied "yellow line" running around 10 kilometers (six miles) deep along Lebanon's southern border.

Arab World

Gaza Hospital Says Child among Three Killed in Israeli Strike

Residents inspect the rubble of a building that belongs to the Palestinian family of Abu Saif and was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Residents inspect the rubble of a building that belongs to the Palestinian family of Abu Saif and was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Gaza Hospital Says Child among Three Killed in Israeli Strike

Residents inspect the rubble of a building that belongs to the Palestinian family of Abu Saif and was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Residents inspect the rubble of a building that belongs to the Palestinian family of Abu Saif and was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A pre-dawn Israeli airstrike killed three members of a Palestinian family, including a one-year-old child, in central Gaza on Sunday, a hospital said.

Gaza remains gripped with daily violence despite a formal ceasefire in place since October, with both the Israeli military and Hamas accusing one another of violating the truce, says AFP.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah said it had received the bodies of a couple and their infant after an Israeli strike hit a residential apartment in the Al-Nuseirat camp before dawn.

The hospital said around 10 people were wounded.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military about the three deaths, though it said it had struck three Hamas weapons storage facilities in central Gaza over the preceding 24 hours.

A ceasefire has been in place in Gaza since October, but Israel reserves the right to strike targets it deems a threat.

At least 890 Palestinians have been killed since the October 10 ceasefire, according to Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.

The Israeli military says five of its soldiers have also been hit during the same period.

Media restrictions and limited access in Gaza have prevented AFP from independently verifying casualty figures or freely covering the fighting.