Fatah

According to Al Jazeera, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority has agreed to form a unity government with rival organisation Hamas.

The two organisations will form a new National Council. The plan is to include Palestinians in exile and then hold elections.

It should be noted that the Islamic Jihad group was also included in the negotiations.

The Palestinian government decided Oct. 4 to delay municipal elections for up to four months after the high court ruled they should be held only in the West Bank and not in the Gaza Strip.
However, a new date for the vote was not set by the government based in the West Bank, the Palestinian territory run by President Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party.

A delegation to Israel and Palestine from Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has said the Fatah party in Palestine resents being "ignored" by the Turkish government.

Two people were killed when gunmen briefly opened fire in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp, breaching a tense ceasefire, Palestinian sources said on Aug. 27.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on June 21 told visiting French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius that any new Palestinian unity government should not include Hamas, France's top diplomat said.

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 on Nov. 11 accused the Islamist movement Hamas of trying "to destroy" efforts to broker national unity through a series of bomb blasts in Gaza last week.

Israel has advanced the planning of more than 1,000 new Jewish settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, an official said Oct. 27, sparking a Palestinian warning of an "explosion" of violence.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has congratulated the formation of the unity government between Fatah and Hamas and expressed Turkey’s solidarity with Palestine to President Mahmoud Abbas over the phone.

The Palestinian efforts to isolate Israel from global football goes visible at the FIFA. The Palestinian side hopes the campaign will ease Israeli pressure on local football The scene is set at next month’s World Cup in Brazil for a showdown between Israel and Palestine – albeit off the pitch, given that neither qualified for one of the world’s most important sporting events.