 President Mahmoud Abbas on West Bank issue.){kind=link}
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on West Bank issue. It was the first high-level meeting between the two sides in 10 years, the first since Prime Minister Naftali Bennett came into force in June.
Gantz travelled to the West Bank city of Ramallah for “security, civil and economic discussions” with the 85-year-old Palestinian leader, officials said Monday.
They came hours after Israeli leader Bennett returned from Washington, DC, where he met US President Joe Biden at the White House.
“Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas [Sunday] evening to discuss defence policy, civilian and economic issues,” the Israeli Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
Gantz, the leader of a centrist party in the Israeli governing coalition, told Abbas that “Israel is trying to take measures that strengthen the PA’s economy. They have also discussed security and economic situations in the West Bank and Gaza. to design “, it added.
“They were once again communicating.”
The rally includes the head of the Israeli military branch responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, Ghassan Alyan, senior PA official Hussein al-Sheikh and Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj.
Al-Sheikh confirmed the meeting on Twitter, while Gantz’s office said that the defence minister and Abbas had “one-on-one meetings” after the larger talks.
A Palestinian official, conversing on condition of anonymity, said Gantz and Abbas were discussing possible steps to improve relations – including Palestinian demands for a halt to Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank, allowing the reunification of families with enabling families in Israel, and more empowering Palestinian workers in Israel.
Bennett is a hard-line nationalist who is against the Palestinian and has previously led a powerful settler lobbying council.
On Monday, Bennett tried to dispel any notion of a move toward renewed peace talks. Israeli media quoted a source close to the prime minister as saying, “There is no diplomatic process with the Palestinians, there is none.”
In a sign of friction over Palestinian civil servants from Bennett’s fragile coalition, Mossi Raz, a left-wing Meretz party lawmaker, said the dismissal of prospects for renewed peace talks was “scandalous”.
“A peace process is in Israel’s interest,” Raz wrote on Twitter.
After his US visit, a White House statement said Biden reiterated Bennett’s support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “underlined the importance of steps to save the lives of Palestinians. improve “.