Abbas Speeds up Efforts to Unite Palestinians

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gives a speech to mark the 14th anniversary of the death of former president Yasser Arafat in November 2018. (Getty Images)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gives a speech to mark the 14th anniversary of the death of former president Yasser Arafat in November 2018. (Getty Images)
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Abbas Speeds up Efforts to Unite Palestinians

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gives a speech to mark the 14th anniversary of the death of former president Yasser Arafat in November 2018. (Getty Images)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gives a speech to mark the 14th anniversary of the death of former president Yasser Arafat in November 2018. (Getty Images)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has informed the general secretaries of factions of his advance approval of all decisions that the committees are expected to reach to end the Palestinian division and unite their political authority.

This includes the participation of the opposition Hamas and “Islamic Jihad” in the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Such a move is seen as an effort by Abbas to confront the challenges and political and financial pressure faced by his Palestinian Authority (PA).

In a televised speech addressed to the leaders of various factions in Ramallah and Beirut, Abbas underlined the need to launch comprehensive national dialogue. He singled out the Hamas and Fatah movements, calling on them to kick off dialogue to approve the mechanism to end the division based on the principle of a united people and political system that seeks to achieve the people’s aspirations.

Among the officials present to for Abbas’ speech were Hamas politburo chief Ismail Hanieh, “Islamic Jihad” secretary general Ziad al-Nakhaleh, members of the PLO executive committee and Fatah central committee.

“We are gathered here to confront all the dangers and conspiracies that are aimed at eliminating our national cause,” continued Abbas.

He urged the need to reach a “united national political stance that would pave the way to ending the terrible division, achieving reconciliation and building the national partnership through general, legislative and presidential elections.”

He revealed that he will carry out the necessary arrangements to hold a meeting for the central council as soon as possible to approve the mechanisms that will be agreed on to end the division and reach reconciliation.

This is the first Abbas-chaired meeting in 13 years since the division that is attended by Hanieh and other opposition figures.

Abbas announced that he was ready to hold a United Nations-sponsored international peace conference that would kick off serious negotiations based on international resolutions and the 2002 Arab peace initiative.

Furthermore, he urged Arab countries to underline during the next Arab League meeting, which will be chaired by Palestine, their commit to the initiative and declare that the establishment of ties with Israel can only take place after it ends its occupation and after Palestinians establish their sovereign state based on the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

After the speech, Hanieh said Hamas was ready to restore unity. He believed that the national strategy to achieving this goal is based on organizing Palestinian ranks, restoring Palestinian national unity and resistance in all of its popular, military political and legal forms, and forming an Arab-Islamic alliance that backs their cause.



Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
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Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.

The military had announced the daily pauses from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards.

"When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official said.

The military clarified that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.

The reaction from Netanyahu underlined political tensions over the issue of aid coming into Gaza, where international organizations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads one of the nationalist religious parties in Netanyahu's ruling coalition, denounced the idea of a tactical pause, saying whoever decided it was a "fool" who should lose their job.

DIVISIONS BETWEEN COALITION, ARMY

The spat was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the coalition and the military over the conduct of the war, now in its ninth month.

It came a week after centrist former general Benny Gantz quit the government, accusing Netanyahu of having no effective strategy in Gaza.

The divisions were laid bare last week in a parliamentary vote on a law on conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voting against it in defiance of party orders, saying it was insufficient for the needs of the military.

Religious parties in the coalition have strongly opposed conscription for the ultra-Orthodox, drawing widespread anger from many Israelis, which has deepened as the war has gone on.

Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, the head of the military, said on Sunday there was a "definite need" to recruit more soldiers from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community.

RESERVISTS UNDER STRAIN

Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to halt the fighting still appears distant, more than eight months since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters on Israel triggered a ground assault on the enclave by Israeli forces.

Since the attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in Israeli communities, Israel's military campaign has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health ministry figures, and destroyed much of Gaza.

Although opinion polls suggest most Israelis support the government's aim of destroying Hamas, there have been widespread protests attacking the government for not doing more to bring home around 120 hostages who are still in Gaza after being taken hostage on Oct. 7.

Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed in two air strikes on two houses in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.

As fighting in Gaza has continued, a lower level conflict across the Israel-Lebanon border is now threatening to spiral into a wider war as near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have escalated.

In a further sign that fighting in Gaza could drag on, Netanyahu's government said on Sunday it was extending until Aug. 15 the period it would fund hotels and guest houses for residents evacuated from southern Israeli border towns.