PA Chairman announces that Palestinian factions have agreed on presidential and parliamentary elections • "We have asked Europeans to urge Israel to allow elections in East Jerusalem"

• PA Chairman, Abu Mazen // Photo: IP

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced Tuesday (Tuesday) that the Palestinian Authority is running for general elections and the Palestinian Legislative Council in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.

Abbas said this during an anti-corruption conference in Ramallah, reiterating the need to hold elections in the format in the past. Mahmoud Abbas claimed that all factions agreed to the elections after sustained efforts by the Palestinian election committee chairman Hanna Nasser.

Abbas in the UN: "If Israel annexes territories - we will abolish all agreements" // Photo: Reuters

Abbas claimed that the last issue remaining on the agenda was the holding of elections in East Jerusalem. Mahmoud Abbas insisted that elections cannot be held without the participation of East Jerusalem residents, which Israel has opposed in the past.

"We are continuing efforts by European and other countries in the world to urge Israel to allow the elections to take place in 1996 and 2006.

More on:

"Elections in the PA Will Hamas Take Over the West Bank"

Report: Iran promised Hamas a regular army in the Gaza Strip

Opinion: It is unclear who Abbas is threatening

Hamas: Refusing Abbas's terms for holding elections

The last time elections in Gaza and the West Bank were held in 2006, the Hamas movement won and won most of the Palestinian parliament.

A year later, Hamas made a government coup in Gaza, taking over all the focal points of government and enforcement in the Gaza Strip, with brutal acts of killings and lynching and deportation of senior Palestinian and their families from the Gaza Strip.

Recently, however, public criticism has begun to emerge on the Palestinian street due to the fact that the process of intra-Palestinian reconciliation is not progressing anywhere and is at an impasse.