Palestinian President: We May Be Forced to Take New Course of Action to Counter Israeli Practices

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. (Getty Images)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. (Getty Images)
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Palestinian President: We May Be Forced to Take New Course of Action to Counter Israeli Practices

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. (Getty Images)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. (Getty Images)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned Monday that Israel’s continued undermining of the two-state solution and its apartheid regime will force the Palestinian Authority to take different and important decisions next year.

“We reiterate our absolute rejection of the continuation of the Israel's occupation of the land of the State of Palestine, and of racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing against our Palestinian people,” Abbas said in a televised speech at the conference on "Self-Liberation of the Palestinians: Producing Resistance Knowledge".

Abbas said the PA is still reaching out to achieve a just and comprehensive peace according to the two-state solution and international resolutions and under the auspices of the International Quartet.

However, he warned that Israel's ongoing undermining of the two-state solution and its apartheid practices "will force us to resort to other options if the occupation does not reverse its actions."

"We may be forced to take important decisions which we will discuss in the next PLO Central Council meeting, which will be held early next year."

The PLO Central Council is expected to hold a meeting next January to place a work plan for the initiative that Abbas launched last September at the UN, where he called on the Secretary-General to convene an international peace conference.

Abbas’ threats come amid growing frustration with the US administration’s slow approach in supporting political efforts aimed at ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.



Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah Was Killed Last Year inside the War Operations Room, Aide Says

People look through the rubble of buildings which were leveled on September 27 by Israeli strikes that targeted and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on September 29, 2024. (AFP)
People look through the rubble of buildings which were leveled on September 27 by Israeli strikes that targeted and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on September 29, 2024. (AFP)
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Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah Was Killed Last Year inside the War Operations Room, Aide Says

People look through the rubble of buildings which were leveled on September 27 by Israeli strikes that targeted and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on September 29, 2024. (AFP)
People look through the rubble of buildings which were leveled on September 27 by Israeli strikes that targeted and killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in the Haret Hreik neighborhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, on September 29, 2024. (AFP)

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike last year while inside the group's war operations room, according to new details Sunday disclosed by a senior Hezbollah official.

A series of Israeli airstrikes flattened several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sept. 27, 2023, killing Nasrallah. The Lebanese Health Ministry said six people died. According to news reports, Nasrallah and other senior officials were meeting underground.

The assassination of Nasrallah, who had led Hezbollah for 32 years, turned months of low-level strikes between Israel and the fighters into all-out war that battered much of southern and eastern Lebanon for two months until a US-brokered ceasefire took effect Nov. 27.

Nasrallah “used to lead the battle and war from this location,” top Hezbollah security official Wafiq Safa told a news conference Sunday near the site where Nasrallah was killed. He said Nasrallah died in the war operations room. He did not offer other details.

Lebanese media had reported that Safa was a target of Israeli airstrikes in central Beirut before the ceasefire but appeared unscathed.

During the first phase of the ceasefire, Hezbollah is supposed to move its fighters, weapons and infrastructure away from southern Lebanon north of the Litani River, while Israeli troops that invaded southern Lebanon need to withdraw all within 60 days. Lebanese army soldiers are to deploy in large numbers and alongside United Nations peacekeepers be the sole armed presence in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon and Hezbollah have been critical of ongoing Israeli strikes and overflights across the country and for only withdrawing from two of dozens of Lebanese villages it controls. Israel says that the Lebanese military has not done its share in dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.

Hezbollah’s current leader Naim Qassem in a televised address Saturday warned that its fighters could strike Israel if its troops don’t leave the south by the end of the month.

Safa said that Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who negotiated the ceasefire deal with Washington, told Hezbollah that the government will meet with US envoy Amos Hochstein soon. “And in light of what happens, then there will be a position,” said Safa.

Hochstein had led the shuttle diplomacy efforts to reach the fragile truce.