Israel / Palestine

The UN Secretary-General has welcomed Friday’s announcement from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the first full parliamentary and presidential elections in 15 years, scheduled to begin in May. … Pressure has grown on Palestinian leaders to reconcile across political and regional divides, according to news reports, following the stalemate with Israel over peace negotiations, and diplomatic agreements reached in recent months between Israel and four Arab nations.

Preliminary vote inches Israel toward fourth election in two years, but Netanyahu-Gantz compromise could prevent it.

The Palestinian Authority has agreed to resume coordination with Israeli authorities, which has been suspended since May over Israel's plans to annex parts of the West Bank, Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh said Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump announced Friday that Sudan is in the process of normalizing its ties with Israel, making it the third Arab state to do so as part of recent US-brokered deals.

Israel has stopped granting any visas to employees at the United Nations’ human rights agency, effectively forcing the body’s top staff to leave, Middle East Eye can reveal.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and their international partners, must urgently resume peace efforts “before it is too late”, UN Middle East envoy Nikolay Mladenov told the Security Council on Tuesday, echoing the Secretary-General. 

Deal between the rival Palestinian factions follows normalisation agreements between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain.

President Trump said the agreements to normalize relations marked “the dawn of a new Middle East,” but some analysts said his claims were overblown.

Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas said Monday they had reached a Qatari-mediated deal with Israel to end more than three weeks of cross-border attacks. In the latest escalation, Israel has bombed Gaza almost daily since August 6 in response to airborne incendiary devices and, less frequently, rockets launched across the border.

The recent agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates has the potential to change dynamics across the Middle East, the UN’s top envoy in the region told the Security Council on Tuesday, urging Palestinian and Israeli leaders to re-engage in efforts to resolve their protracted conflict.