A senior leader of the ruling Fatah party in the occupied West Bank has recommended that Türkiye mediate between itself and Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, in an effort to revive reconciliation efforts to unify rival Palestinian factions amid Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Middle East Monitor reported on December 24.
According to the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak on Thursday, Fatah’s general secretary Jibril Rajoub revealed to it during a visit to Istanbul that “We told our Turkish counterparts that we wanted to end the [internal Palestinian] division and achieve national unity”.
Calling Turkiye “a very large regional state and a Muslim country that can play a major role in ending division and establishing unity”, Rajoub expressed the Palestinian leadership’s desire for “Turkish officials to motivate our brothers in Hamas to review the situation from a political perspective”.
He expressed Fatah’s belief that Hamas is part of the fabric of Palestinian society, and called the attack by Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades against Israel on 7 October “another heroic epic and a defensive war”.
Rajoub reiterated the necessity for Palestinians to establish a state within the 1967 borders, and to find a resolution to the conflict with Israel, citing it as a key way to achieve unity.
“Palestinians need to take collective decisions by supporting the resistance together. We need to convince the International Criminal Court, the United Nations, and the whole world that the Palestinian state exists”.
At the same time, the top Fatah official asserted that such achievements “cannot happen without national unity. This Palestinian union will also be an organisation that respects international laws. This Palestinian state will be the guarantee of both regional stability and world peace. We are working on this. We want our brothers in Hamas to take action with this perspective.”
Reconciliation between Fatah – otherwise known as the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) or the Palestinian Authority (PA) – and Hamas has long been discussed over the past sixteen years since divisions ramped up and the latter group forcibly took over the Gaza Strip from the PA.
Apparent efforts to reconcile have taken place especially over the past few years, but have often been skewed or failed to bear results, with both rival Palestinian factions failing to hold long-awaited elections throughout the Palestinian territories due to a number of disagreements.
For years, Turkiye has also presented itself as the key mediator between both Fatah and Hamas, meeting the PA’s president Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Hamas’s armed wing hits Israeli forces, vehicles across Gaza Strip
The armed wing of the Hamas group on December 23 said that its fighters targeted Israeli forces and vehicles across the Gaza Strip, and achieved direct hits, Anadolu Agency reports.
According to the report, the announcement by the Al-Qassam Brigades was made in separate statements published by the group.It said fighters clashed with Israeli troops in eastern Khan Younis in southern Gaza and detonated an explosive device, confirming direct casualties to Israeli troops.
Another force of Al-Qassam Brigades targeted a group of five Israeli soldiers in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, with a rocket-propelled grenade, and also inflicted a direct hit on Israeli forces.
In another statement, the Brigades targeted an Israeli armored personnel carrier and a bulldozer in Khan Younis with Al-Yasin 105 anti-tank shells.
Fierce clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinian resistance fighters have been reported across Gaza since the start of the Israeli army’s ground operation on Oct. 27.
Since Oct. 7, the Israeli army has been waging a destructive war on Gaza, resulting in at least 20,424 deaths and 53,320 injured, most of whom are children and women. It has caused immense damage to infrastructure and an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to Palestinian and international reports.
Palestine accuses Israel of exploiting war on Gaza ‘to seize control of the Al-Aqsa Mosque’
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry accused the Israeli government on Friday of exploiting the world’s preoccupation with the Israeli war on Gaza ‘to seize control of the Al-Aqsa Mosque’ in occupied East Jerusalem, Anadolu Agency reports.
“Israel exploits the preoccupation with the genocide war in Gaza Strip and imposes more Judaization measures against Al-Aqsa Mosque,” it said in a statement.It strongly condemned the Israeli forces’ assault on Palestinian worshippers and preventing them from reaching the mosque, as well as condemned the Israeli assault on journalists who were present at the scene.
Early on December 22, Israeli police attacked Palestinians in East Jerusalem after preventing them from reaching the Al-Aqsa Mosque for Friday prayers.Witnesses reportedly said police fired sound bombs and tear gas at Palestinians.Large police contingents were deployed at the gates of Jerusalem’s Old City, and checkpoints were set up to prevent worshipers from passing, and only elderly individuals were allowed to cross.
Since the start of the latest conflict in Gaza on Oct. 7, Israeli police have imposed severe restrictions on the entry of worshipers to the mosque, which intensify on Fridays.Israeli settlers’ extreme groups in the West Bank have also increased attacks on Palestinians, a development that has been decried by the UN and a number of countries.
2 more journalists killed in Gaza, death toll rises to 103 since Oct. 7
Two more Palestinian journalists were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on December 24, bringing the death toll to 103 since Oct. 7, reports Anadolu Agency, citing the government media office.
In a statement, the media office identified the two victims as Mohamed Younis al-Zaytouniyah, a sound engineer for the Palestinian Al-Rai Radio, and Mohamed Abdel-Khaleq Al-Af, a photojournalist for the local Al-Rai Agency, who lost their lives in Israeli attacks in the northern Gaza Strip.
The office said early on December 24 that Ahmed Jamal Al-Madhoun, deputy director of the Palestinian Al-Rai Agency and director of the Visual Media Department, were killed in an Israeli attack in the northern Gaza Strip.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, killing at least 20,424 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 54,036 others, according to health authorities in the enclave.The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory’s housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.
Voting begins in Tunisia’s local election amid boycott by political parties
Voting for Tunisia’s first local council elections began on December 24.Voting started at 8 a.m. local time (0700GMT) and will last for 10 hours in 4,685 election centers set up in 2,155 regions across the North African country, reports Anadolu Agency.
More than 9 million voters are expected to cast their ballots in the elections to choose their local representatives, according to data from the Supreme Electoral Council.The voting will be the first step in determining the composition of a new Local and Regional National Council.
Each of the 279 local councils will send a member chosen by draw to their provincial council. Among the members sent to the provincial councils, 77 council members will serve in the Local and Regional National Council, according to the quota allocated to the regions.
Parties across the political spectrum are boycotting the election, the Anadolu report added.Tunisia has been in the throes of a deep political crisis that has aggravated the country’s economic conditions since 2021 when President Kais Saied ousted the government and dissolved parliament.