Palestinian Prime Ministers Since 2003

Ahmed Qurei, Mahmoud Abbas, and Nabil Shaath

Ramallah: Kifah Zboun

11:11-20 April 2019 AD ـ 15 Sha’ban 1440 AH

10:34-20 April 2019 AD ـ 15 Sha’ban 1440 AH

Ramallah: Kifah Zboun

11:11-20 April 2019 AD ـ 15 Sha’ban 1440 AH

10:34-20 April 2019 AD ـ 15 Sha’ban 1440 AH

Palestinian Prime Ministers Since 2003

Ahmed Qurei, Mahmoud Abbas, and Nabil Shaath

Mahmoud Abbas (Fatah Movement): He assumed the position of prime minister from March 19 till September 6, 2003. He was born in Safad in the far north of Palestine in 1935. His family moved to Syria after the 1948 Nakba. Abbas graduated from the University of Damascus. After enrolling briefly at the Faculty of Law at Cairo University in Egypt, he pursued his studies in Russia and received a Doctorate in political history from the People’s Friendship University in Moscow. He worked in the field of teaching and educational administration in Qatar and was active in political work. He was one of the first leaders of Fatah movement after its establishment. Since then, he took on leadership positions until 2005, when he became president of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, succeeding former President Yasser Arafat, aka Abu Ammar.
Ahmed Qurei (Abu Alaa) (Fatah): He served as prime minister from October 7, 2003 until December 18, 2005. He was born in Abu Dis, a suburb of East Jerusalem in 1937. A political activist, he started working in the banking sector in Saudi Arabia. Then he got fully engaged in politics with Fatah in 1968. He founded the "SAMED" (Sons of Martyrs of Palestine) in Beirut during the early 70's and served as its director general until it stopped working in 2007-2008. He assumed the post of director general of the Department of Economic Affairs and Planning of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He played a key role in the peace negotiations, where he served as general coordinator of Palestinian delegations for multilateral negotiations and headed the Palestinian delegation during the Palestinian-Israeli talks in Oslo, Norway.
Nabil Shaath (Fatah): He was an interim prime minister between December 18 and 24, 2005. He was born in Safad in 1938 to a father who was the director of the Arab Bank and a Lebanese mother. He was a political banker, a businessman and an academic. His family settled in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Alexandria and continued his higher education in the United States, where he received a Master's and Doctorate from the famous Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He founded several companies, worked as an economic consultant, and for years was a professor at the American University of Beirut. Shaath served as an adviser to Yasser Arafat.
After the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority, he returned to Gaza, where he was elected deputy to Khan Yunis, appointed Minister of Planning and International Cooperation. Under Qurei’s government, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Information.
Ahmed Qurei (Fatah): From December 24, 2005, till March 29, 2006.
Ismail Haniyeh (Hamas): From March 29, 2006, to June 14, 2007. During this period, he served as the head of the “tenth government” and then the “eleventh government” - known as the “national unity government” - until its dissolution and its transformation into a caretaker government, in accordance with the Palestinian Basic Law, and its effective authority has since been confined to the Gaza Strip. Haniyeh was born in Al-Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip in 1962. His parents fled to the city of Ashkelon after 1948. He studied at the Islamic University in Gaza and graduated with honors in Arabic literature. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the same university in 2009.
He began his political activity within the "Islamic bloc", which was the student arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, from which emerged the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). He was imprisoned by the Israeli authorities in 1989 for three years and then exiled in 1992 for a year in Marj al-Zuhour in south-eastern Lebanon with a group of Hamas leaders. In 1997, Haniyeh was appointed head of the office of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas. In December 2005, he headed the Change and Reform List, which won the majority of votes in the second Palestinian legislative elections in 2006. On February 16, 2006, Hamas nominated him for the post of prime minister, to which he was appointed on February 20.
Dr. Salam Fayyad (the "Third Way" bloc): He took office on June 17, 2007, until April 11, 2013. He was born in 1952 in the town of Deir al-Ghusun, near the city of Tulkarm in the far west of the West Bank. In 1975, he received a BA from the American University of Beirut. He then traveled to the United States where he received his Master's degree in accounting from the University of St. Edward, Texas, and then in 1986 his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Texas - Austin.
Fayyad then worked at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC, and was promoted to the post of Executive Advisor to the Executive Director (1992-1995). After the signing of the Oslo Agreement in 1993, he served as Resident Representative in Jerusalem to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 2002, he was appointed Minister of Finance until 2005. In 2007 he headed an emergency government.
Dr. Rami Hamdallah (Fatah): From June 3, 2013, until March 10, 2019. He was born in 1958 in the town of Anabta near Tulkarm. He graduated from the University of Jordan and then traveled to Britain where he received a Master’s degree from Manchester University in 1982 and a Doctorate in Applied Linguistics from Lancaster University in 1988. He worked as an English professor at An-Najah University, before becoming university president in 1998. He is the secretary-general of the Palestinian Central Elections Commission since 2002.
Dr. Mohamed Ashtiyeh (Fatah): he became prime minister on March 10, 2019.
Read more on Ashtiyeh by clicking here.

What You Need to Know About the 2026 US Midterm Elections

A poll worker lays out voter participation stickers during early voting in the US midterm elections at Desert Breeze Community Center on October 17, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (AFP)

10:33-19 October 2026 AD ـ 08 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

What You Need to Know About the 2026 US Midterm Elections

A poll worker lays out voter participation stickers during early voting in the US midterm elections at Desert Breeze Community Center on October 17, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (AFP)

Early voting has been underway for weeks ahead of the November 3, 2026, midterm elections, when US voters will elect members of the House of Representatives and Senate and governors in states across the country.

Held in the middle of each four-year presidential term, the midterms by definition do not involve the president. But for anyone who thinks they lack drama or importance this year, consider these two statistics:

More than 100 million people likely will cast ballots in this year's midterm voting, if turnout is anything like the previous midterm in 2022; and as of October 12, a record $3.8 billion had been spent on political advertisements that have been aired so far. Top spending is in battleground US Senate races in Texas, Ohio and Michigan, according to AdImpact, which tracks the activities.

Elon Musk alone has spent about $366 million to support Republicans, according to campaign finance records.

Still, midterms generally attract fewer voters than the higher-profile presidential races. More than 155 million votes were cast in the 2024 presidential election, for example.

Poll workers set up voting machines during early voting for the US midterm elections at Galleria Mall on October 17, 2026 in Henderson, Nevada. (AFP)

CONTROL OF CONGRESS AT STAKE

Plenty is at stake in this midterm election as Democrats try to win majority control of the US Congress.

Currently, Republicans hold a 218-214 majority in the House, where there are two vacancies and one independent who caucuses with Republicans. Democrats must win a net gain of four seats to win control.

Democrats also ‌are fighting to ‌win the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority. They must net four additional seats to get control. Ten races, including ‌those ⁠in Maine, Ohio, North ⁠Carolina, Iowa and Georgia, could decide the outcome.

CAN MIDTERMS AFFECT THE PRESIDENCY?

Midterm elections generally are dangerous territory for the political party that holds the White House and/or Congress. For 2026 that means that President Donald Trump and his Republicans controlling the US Senate and House of Representatives are in perilous political positions.

The midterms can be an opportunity for voters to, in effect, grade the president's performance, and possibly trigger White House course corrections if they receive low marks.

Midterm election results also can give aspiring presidential candidates hints on how to tailor their messages to voters in the next presidential campaign, which in this case will be in 2028.

WHAT ARE POLLS SHOWING?

Approval of Trump's performance is at an all-time low of 32%, according to a September Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Domestic issues like rising consumer prices are likely to have an impact on the outcome of many races and could erode support for Republicans.

At the same time, there is evidence that ⁠Democrats are more enthusiastic about voting this year than Republicans. If early voting trends continue, it could point to a Democratic ‌win in November.

There are also signs that Latino voters who veered to Trump in 2024 might be returning to ‌Democrats because of frustration over the economy and some of Trump's immigration enforcement tactics.

However, a landslide for the Democrats is far from assured. Republicans could benefit from continued skepticism towards Democrats, a Republican ‌spending advantage on campaigns, and fears from moderate voters over some primary wins by left-wingers.

US President Donald Trump dances as he walks off the stage after speaking during a midterm rally at Truist Arena on the Northern Kentucky University campus on October 17, 2026 in Highland Heights, Kentucky. (Getty Images/AFP)

RECENT MIDTERM HISTORY

Recent history tells the story of the shockwaves a midterm election can produce.

In ‌the 2010 midterms, during the Democratic presidency of Barack Obama, Republicans scored major victories, winning 63 additional House seats amid an underperforming US economy and weak support for Obama's landmark healthcare reform legislation. Democrats lost their majority. In the Senate, they held onto control despite losing six seats.

The Republican wave was a "shellacking," Obama lamented at the time. He subsequently faced Republican demands for significant reductions to non-defense spending.

Democrats returned the favor in 2018, with Trump in the White House. They gained a net total of 40 House seats, but lost a net two Senate seats.

This year's elections also have races ‌for governors in 39 of the 50 states and voting in nearly every state for seats in their state-level legislative bodies.

Currently, Republicans control 55% of state legislative seats across the country, while Democrats hold 43.8%, according to Ballotpedia.

US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaks to the media as he campaigns with Florida Democratic Congressional candidate Eliott Rodriguez at the CAO Bakery and Cafe on October 16, 2026 in Miami, Florida. (Getty Images/AFP)

WHO WILL BE SPEAKER?

If ⁠Democrats manage to win the House, the ⁠next speaker — second in line for the presidency after the vice president — is likely to be Democratic Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York. He is currently the House Democratic leader.

Jeffries, who would become the first Black American to hold the powerful office, would be in a position to direct House committees to launch investigations into a range of controversial activities by Trump and his associates. Jeffries repeatedly has said Democrats would look into what he has called "unprecedented levels of corruption" during the Trump administration.

Jeffries also would steer Democrats' legislative priorities through the House. He has said Democrats would focus on making healthcare, groceries, housing, energy and other costs more affordable.

A Republican win, on the other hand, would ensure that the speaker's gavel remains in that party's hands, either with current speaker Mike Johnson or whichever Republican prevails if he is challenged for the job. Republican priorities are likely to be focused on additional tax cuts, huge increases in defense spending, and deeper social safety net reductions, building on Trump's 2025 "One Big Beautiful Bill."

MARQUEE RACES

Among the most-watched House races are Republican Representative Mike Lawler's bid for reelection to a New York district that Democratic candidate Kamala Harris won in her 2024 presidential campaign and an open seat in a Nebraska swing district where farmers and truckers face sharply higher fuel prices as a result of the US war against Iran.

Also high on Democrats' list of House seats they hope to take from Republicans are two in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey.

Hovering over all of this are questions over whether Trump will try to meddle in the elections, which are administered by the 50 individual states.

Since 2020, he has repeatedly insisted there is widespread cheating in US elections, despite a lack of evidence. State election officials and Democrats in Congress have been preparing for possible legal challenges to any moves by his administration to try to intervene.

Features

Gaza Teen Amputees Recount Hopes, Lost Dreams in Jordan Center

Mahmoud Abou Nusair, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy who lost his right leg during the war in Gaza, sits for an interview at a medical center where he receives treatment in Amman on October 13, 2026 as part of the "Jordanian medical corridor" initiative. (AFP)

07:22-19 October 2026 AD ـ 08 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Gaza Teen Amputees Recount Hopes, Lost Dreams in Jordan Center

At 15 years old, Mahmoud Abou Nusair recalls the love he had for football, before Israeli fire in Gaza took his leg and his dreams away.

He is one of more than 450 Palestinian amputees receiving care and prosthetic limbs at a center in Amman and in Gaza, part of an initiative run by Jordan's Restoring Hope Society.

- Mahmoud, 15 -

On October 31, 2025, during the ongoing Gaza ceasefire agreed that month, Mahmoud Abou Nusair was looking for firewood in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, when a bullet struck his right leg.

With Gaza's healthcare system decimated after three years of war, he had to undergo an amputation below the knee after his injury worsened.

"The doctor came to see me and told me, 'We have to amputate your foot'," he told AFP.

"My mother said, 'No, doctor, that's his soul. What will he do if he wants to go out, play football, skate or go to the beach? It's a sin to cut off his foot'."

"My first reaction was to scream," he said. "Then I took a look at the injured people around me in the hospital. They all had amputated arms and legs, so I told myself: my injury is better.

"Then I said, 'Amputate it, doctor'."

After his injury, he recalls having to wait half an hour until a horse-drawn cart picked him up and took him to Al-Aqsa hospital.

He was taken to Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where he spent two weeks.

He still mourns the loss of his sports equipment and his five balls, all of which he lost when his home was destroyed.

- Zuhdi, 17 -

At the facility in Amman, Zuhdi Abou Shanab, 17, says he lost his entire right leg in a strike that killed nine people and injured 28 others on September 8, 2025.

"I was on my way to buy groceries for my mother, and I ran into a friend, so we stopped to talk," he told AFP.

"When they struck the building, we were standing next to, I lost consciousness and when I woke up, I found myself wounded and bleeding.

"A week later, the doctors told me that I was suffering from an infection in the artery in my leg and that three veins and three arteries in my leg had been severed," he continued.

"I underwent an operation to reattach the arteries and veins, but it failed, so they decided to amputate my leg."

"The war has devastated us and torn us away from our friends... there is nothing left," he added.

But he still holds on to hope that his condition will improve, dreaming of "returning to Gaza".

"I miss my mother, my brothers and my sisters."

- Abdulrahman, 16 -

Abdulrahman Rihan lost the use of his legs when his family home in Jabalia, northern Gaza was bombed, the morning of January 12, 2025.

Both he and his father suffered severe wounds. They were taken to multiple hospitals in Gaza, where they "underwent difficult and painful surgeries", Abdulrahman recounted.

Three of his brothers were also wounded. Their father, Imad Rihan, 42, said he had to "undergo some surgeries without anesthetic in Gaza".

"This war was very hard on us," said the father, who lost his left leg.

"No matter how much we talk about the war, or how much you have seen of it, all of this remains but a drop in the ocean compared to the reality that we witnessed with our own eyes."

Features

In Shadow of War, Israelis to Decide if Hard-Right Turn Is Permanent

Rappelling workers install an election billboard featuring an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and reading in Hebrew "It's either the Right or Palestine," in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, Israel, 18 October 2026. (EPA)

08:56-18 October 2026 AD ـ 07 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

In Shadow of War, Israelis to Decide if Hard-Right Turn Is Permanent

Three years after suffering their deadliest single attack, Israelis will deliver their verdict on veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an October 27 election that could decide if the country moves definitively into hard-right nationalism.

The trauma of October 7, 2023 remains raw across Israel. Faded stickers bearing the smiles of young people killed by Hamas cover station walls and lampposts, and at bustling restaurants, no one bats an eye as patrons dine with their assault rifles, now liberally allowed.

Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister who polls show is in a tight race, is seeking a new mandate after leading a multi-front regional war in response to October 7, with Israel reducing Gaza to rubble, occupying part of Lebanon and, with US help, bombarding Iran.

The relentless Gaza campaign has brought pariah status to Israel in many once-friendly Western countries, and Netanyahu himself faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

Even if the public broadly has supported the war's aims, the effects at home have been much more divisive, including emboldening Netanyahu's far-right allies bent on reshaping Israel into a religious-nationalist Jewish state.

"I really think that these elections are about the future of the state in a literal sense," said Gideon Rahat, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Israel Democracy Institute.

Netanyahu's government has ramped up settlements in the occupied West Bank where settlers armed with the blessing of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have been attacking Palestinians on their lands with only occasional pushback from authorities.

"The state without a monopoly on the use of force is a failed state," Rahat said.

Netanyahu, who turns 77 on October 21, has served as prime minister on and off for more than 19 years.

The wily political operator returned to power in December 2022 bringing in once-shunned ultra-nationalists and quickly tried to rein in the judiciary, which is examining corruption charges that could land him in jail.

The proposed reforms brought out some of the largest protests in Israel's history in the months before the Hamas attack.

"Everyone in the country has a strong opinion about Netanyahu. People either hate him or adore him," said Alon Yakter, a political scientist at Tel Aviv University.

"When you want to see who people vote for, the first question you have to ask is their emotional feelings about Netanyahu."

- Anti-Netanyahu in style, not stance -

Seeking to unseat Netanyahu is an informal bloc of parties united mostly around their distaste for him.

Netanyahu's most formidable rival, according to polls, is former military chief Gadi Eisenkot, who is in many ways his antithesis -- a political novice who wants to unite centrists rather than rally a base, and a phlegmatic speaker with halting English and none of the American-raised Netanyahu's flair for blistering, headline-grabbing speeches.

Eisenkot, as well as other opposition leaders, have zeroed in on why Netanyahu failed to prevent October 7.

Netanyahu has been rocked by reports he ignored warnings. He vehemently denies the charges, blaming security chiefs who he said failed to wake him up that morning.

Netanyahu "may have his perfect English, but even with perfect English he got us October 7", Eisenkot, in Hebrew, told a security conference at Reichman University.

Eisenkot's son died in the Gaza war -- offering an unspoken contrast to Netanyahu's son Yair, a globe-trotting social media provocateur.

The working-class son of Moroccan Jewish immigrants, Eisenkot would be the first prime minister of Middle Eastern ancestry, a watershed in a country politically dominated since its founding by an elite of European descent.

Opposition leaders have not criticized Netanyahu's decision to wage war, likely a losing stance in a country where a recent survey found that only 21 percent of the population identifies as anywhere left of center.

Eisenkot, as military chief during the 2006 Lebanon war, promoted the Israeli doctrine of using massive force even against civilian infrastructure when in areas used by militants, such as Hezbollah.

The opposition has instead heavily focused on social issues including Netanyahu's tight alliance with ultra-Orthodox Jews, a fast-growing segment of the population due to high birth rates that has promoted religious priorities, such as keeping public transit closed on Saturdays.

Netanyahu, while personally secular, has allowed religious students to remain exempt from military service, a source of particular resentment when stretched reservists have served multiple tours.

Opposition figure Naftali Bennett, prime minister in a short-lived 2021-22 government, has vowed to end all exemptions to military service and said that social divisions were putting Israel on a "slow-motion suicide mission".

- Hardline appeal -

While the opposition attacks Netanyahu over October 7, for some Israelis, the aftermath of the attack shows the government has brought stability.

While Israelis have died in Iranian and Hezbollah retaliatory attacks, fire has stopped from Gaza, even as Israel keeps striking the territory and Hamas remains.

Israel's economy has boomed since October 7, with construction sites dotting the major cities and the stock market soaring, led by the technology and defense sectors.

Neriah Yarchi, 19, a barber from Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, came of political age after October 7. He said he would vote for far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who wants the "voluntary" removal of Gaza's two million Palestinians.

"If Gaza had been ours, they wouldn't have had a place to infiltrate from and there wouldn't have been a massacre," Yarchi said.

Netanyahu has sought to seize on his international notoriety, with his Likud party putting up posters of leaders including New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israeli policies, that read, "They want Netanyahu to lose. Don't let them win."

Netanyahu has also vowed loudly never to align with parties representing Arab Israelis, who make up around one-fifth of the population and who some expect to turn out in higher numbers after the intense anti-Arab stances of some of Netanyahu's ministers.

Arab lawmakers broke precedent to be kingmakers in the 2021-2022 government.

If the new election's results are as close as expected, it could take weeks or months to form a government. Eisenkot has said he would not ally with Arab parties or Netanyahu, but some critics do not believe he would refuse.

Uriel Reichman, a former lawmaker who founded the university bearing his name, told the conference addressed by Eisenkot that a Netanyahu triumph could permanently entrench Israel's right-wing turn.

He drew a parallel to countries where an elected populist packs the government with loyalists and transforms once-independent institutions.

"Experience shows that once such a system is put in place, it would be extremely difficult to dismantle it," he said.

Palestinian Prime Ministers Since 2003

Most Viewed

What You Need to Know About the 2026 US Midterm Elections

Gaza Teen Amputees Recount Hopes, Lost Dreams in Jordan Center

In Shadow of War, Israelis to Decide if Hard-Right Turn Is Permanent

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