Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas sat down with Israel’s Defence Minister Benny Gantz in the city of Rosh Ha'ayin on Tuesday, in the PA leader's first high-level talks in the Jewish state in a decade.
Benny Gantz, leader of Blue and White party, speaks during an election campaign rally in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, Israel, February 25, 2020
© REUTERS / CORINNA KERN
Gantz, for his part, tweeted that he and Abbas discussed "the implementation of economic and civilian measures, and emphasised the importance of deepening security coordination and preventing terror and violence - for the well-being of both Israelis and Palestinians".
He was partly echoed by Abbas adviser Hussein al-Sheikh who stressed that Tuesday's meeting "dealt with the importance of creating a political horizon that leads to a political solution […] as well as the tense conditions in the field due to the practices of settlers".
The adviser was apparently referring to Israel recently approving plans to build another 2,860 housing units in 30 settlements on Palestinian lands, where the Jewish state is trying to extend its sovereignty.
Al-Sheikh's remarks came as Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who assumed office in mid-June, remains opposed to renewed peace negotiations with the Palestinians.The latter signalled a readiness for such talks earlier this year.
Gantz, however, made it plain in August that he perceives the Abbas government as the only alternative to the Palestinian political and military movement Hamas that governs Gaza. Hamas is a group blacklisted by Israel as a terrorist organisation.
"If the Palestinian Authority is stronger, Hamas will be weaker. When the Palestinian Authority has more ability to enforce order, there will be more security, and our hand will be forced less", the Israeli defence minister asserted.
Hamas has, meanwhile, slammed Abbas for meeting Gantz, slamming the PNA leader's move as "reprehensible and condemnable".
"This is an attack on the uprising taking place in the West Bank", the militant group's spokesman, Hazim Qasim, argued, in an apparent nod to a recent series of Hamas attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians.
The statement was preceded by another Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, tweeting that the group is "not counting on any change in the occupation [Israeli] governments, since they are united on the policy of killing and confiscating Palestinian rights".
Israel's Settlement Construction in West Bank
As for the issue of Israel's settlements in the West Bank, considered to be an occupied territory by the UN, it remains one of the main stumbling blocks in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
The two-state solution to the conflict is a UN-backed principle, under which two independent sovereign states will coexist peacefully. Its implementation remains stalled, however, as the two parties have not yet agreed on where the border between them should run and who will possess Jerusalem.
In January 2020, the Trump administration unveiled its so-called "Deal of the Century" peace plan envisioning a two-state solution, including the recognition of Israeli claims to settler areas in the West Bank, the extension of Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, and the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
For the Palestinians, who immediately rejected the plan, the "Deal of the Century" offered $50 billion in infrastructure and investment assistance, pledging a few neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem for a Palestinian state capital.