In first high-level talks in years, Benny Gantz met PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday night to discuss ‘security, economic situations’.
Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz has met Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank in the first high-level meeting between the two sides in 10 years, the first since Prime Minister Naftali Bennett took office in June.
Gantz travelled to the West Bank city of Ramallah for “security, civilian, and economic discussions” with the 85-year-old Palestinian leader, officials said on Monday.
They came hours after Israeli leader Bennett returned from Washington, DC where he met US President Joe Biden at the White House.
“Defence Minister Benny Gantz met with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmud Abbas [Sunday] evening to discuss security policy, civilian and economic issues,” Israel’s defence ministry said in a statement.
Gantz, the head of a centrist party in Israel’s government coalition, told Abbas “that Israel seeks to take measures that will strengthen the PA’s economy. They also discussed shaping the security and economic situations in the West Bank and in Gaza”, it added.
“They agreed to continue communicating further.”
The meeting included the head of the Israeli military branch responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, Ghasan 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 the defence minister and Abbas held “a one-on-one meeting” after the larger talks.
Palestinian resistance factions condemned the meeting. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said that such meetings “will deepen the Palestinian division and complicate the Palestinian situation”.
He said Sunday’s meeting “was a continuation of the PA delusion of the possibility of achieving something to our people through the failed settlement path”.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Tareq Selmi described Abbas-Gantz meeting as a “sta
Comments