Mahmoud Abbas

France asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stay away from a weekend solidarity march in Paris but he ignored the request and attended anyway, Israeli media reported on Monday.
      

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will visit the Turkish capital of Ankara on Jan. 12 to discuss the repercussions of the U.N. Security Council's failure to adopt a draft resolution setting a deadline for the ending of Israeli occupation, a Palestinian diplomat has said.

Hamas said Jan. 5 it was "totally opposed" to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's plans to re-submit to the UN Security Council a resolution on ending Israel's occupation which failed last week.
      
"Hamas is totally opposed to any return to the UN Security Council by the Palestinian Authority," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.
      

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that he was planning to resubmit the UN Security Council resolution on ending the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel.

Abbas stated that Palestine is to submit the resolution until the Security Council recognises it as a state under occupation, Sky News Arabia quoted him as saying on Sunday.

A Saudi-led proxy war against Iran playing out in Syria and Iraq has expanded onto the football pitch with a last-minute decision by the Palestinian national team to cancel a friendly against Iran.

Around 50 Palestinian unity government officials, including eight ministers, arrived in Gaza Dec. 29 to kickstart reconstruction of the territory devastated by a 50-day war with Israel, officials told AFP.
      

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas warned on Dec. 23 that his administration would "no longer deal" with Israel if a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a final peace deal fails.
      

A draft resolution on ending the Israeli occupation will be submitted to the UN Security Council Dec. 17 after the Palestinians agreed with France on a merged text, foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said.
      
"The draft that will be presented today (Wednesday) is the French draft based on Palestinian observations and decisions," Malki told AFP.
      

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned Israeli actions that led to the death of Palestinian minister Ziad Abu Ein on Dec. 10, reiterating Turkey's support for the Palestinians against "inhuman and outrageous actions."
      
"I deplore and condemn this despicable Israeli act," Erdoğan said in an online statement from the official website of presidency on Dec. 10.

A senior Palestinian official died Wednesday after being struck in a confrontation with Israeli forces during a protest march in the West Bank.
      
The Palestinian leadership vowed to respond to what president Mahmoud Abbas called a "brutal assault" that led to the death of Ziad Abu Ein, who was in charge of the issue of Israeli settlements for the Palestinian Authority.