An informed Palestinian source estimated that “there is no chance of retracting” President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to postpone the legislative elections that were scheduled for next November, despite the explicit French call for that, adding that “advancing their date (scheduled for September 2027), if circumstances permit, is a possible issue.”
The source told Asharq Al-Awsat, on condition of anonymity, that “a broad factional consensus and fundamental obstacles were behind the decision, and the French were specifically informed, along with other parties, of all the details.”
He added: “It is true that President Abbas pledged to French President Emmanuel Macron to hold the elections, and he certainly realizes their necessity, and the importance of the French position in supporting the Authority and the path of the two-state solution. But the elections cannot actually be held now, and they will be held on their new date.”
According to the source, “the Palestinian leadership informed France, the European Union countries, and other parties of the postponement decision and its reasons before it was issued, and it expected everyone to understand the reasons and principles of the decision and the specificity of the Palestinian situation.”
Last Saturday, Abbas issued a presidential decree calling for simultaneous presidential and legislative elections to be held on September 11 of next year, 2027, canceling the legislative elections that were scheduled for next November 28.
Local observers estimated that Abbas resorted to issuing a decree holding the presidential and legislative elections simultaneously, to demonstrate his seriousness in completing the entitlement and to reassure international and regional parties.
Paris is not convinced
It seems that these attempts from Ramallah did not convince Paris; French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Monday in Luxembourg that postponing the Palestinian elections is “the worst thing that can be done to the Palestinians, who have the right to express their aspiration for self-determination, and to do so through free and democratic elections.”
Barrow renewed the French authorities’ call on President Abbas to rescind his decision, and said that he requested that a European Union mission be sent to the Palestinian territories “to evaluate the material and political obstacles preventing the holding of these elections.”
On Sunday, France, one of the most prominent supporters of the Palestinian Authority, called on its leaders to “rescind their decision” to postpone the legislative and presidential elections to September 2027, and “to organize these elections as soon as possible,” according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In what appeared to be a response to the French Foreign Minister, Hussein Al-Sheikh, the Palestinian Vice President, said, “The authority is committed to implementing the basic law and the part related to holding general elections out of belief in pluralism and the transfer of power through peaceful means, and renewing leadership and its legitimacy through one path, which is the ballot box.”
The Sheikh called for pressure on the occupation authorities to create a climate that would help hold these elections in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
He continued: “We pledge to advance the date for holding the presidential and legislative elections simultaneously and interconnected as soon as appropriate conditions exist that guarantee the integrity, transparency and credibility of the electoral process. Elections are not a formal show; Rather, it is a fundamental issue that expresses the will of a people that must be exercised with a minimum of dignity and independence.”
Abbas justified his decision to postpone the elections, with the agreement between the Palestinian factions to postpone and in order to provide the opportunity to hold a Palestinian national dialogue, and to create appropriate political, security and field conditions in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.
In contrast to the previous postponement, Abbas's decision received rare Palestinian approval from various parties, including the opposition.
The Fatah movement recommended postponing the elections, then Hamas considered Abbas’s decision “a step in the right direction.” The Popular Front, Islamic Jihad, and other factions in the Liberation Organization also agreed to this postponement. For the first time, Palestinian unions support postponing the elections.
But the “Reformist Movement,” which broke away from “Fatah,” led by Muhammad Dahlan, attacked the postponement decision, considering it “a clear disdain for the popular will.” The Democratic Front also rejected the postponement decision, saying it was “a jump in the air.”
Member of the Palestinian Bar Association Council, lawyer Anas Al-Kiswani, wrote that factional consensus does not constitute a legal basis for postponing the elections, and does not give any party the authority to disrupt the will of citizens or confiscate their right to choose their representatives, stressing that “political understandings do not take precedence over the law, and the people are the source of legitimacy and authorities.”
For the seventh day in a row, Israel continued to close the Rafah land crossing designated for the travel of the sick and wounded and the return of those stranded to and from Gaza across the border with Egypt. It also imposed new restrictions on the evacuation of travelers, including the sick and wounded, through the Kerem Shalom crossing towards Jordan, and from there to other Arab and European countries.
The Israeli occupation forces prevent the exit of travellers, the sick, the wounded, and their companions, without explanations, at a time when information circulating in the Gaza Strip indicates disagreements related to new arrangements about the possibility of deploying a private security company to secure the process of transporting patients from the Gaza Strip to the Rafah crossing gate.
As of the preparation of this report on Monday afternoon, no information had been determined regarding the date of reopening the crossing, while sources in the sector suggested that it could be operated during Tuesday or a few days after.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza had said a few days ago that “the current list of sick and wounded, numbering 21 thousand patients, requires 4 full years as the period required to evacuate them in light of the mechanism used for travel, without taking into account any new disease cases.”
She explained that “with the continued approval of new medical referrals on a monthly basis, the travel process requires an additional 4 years to deal with the newly accumulated cases,” noting that “the horrific approximate total of patient travel extends to 8 full years, which represents a direct and slow death sentence for thousands of patients whose bodies cannot bear to wait for days or weeks.”
The closure of the Rafah land crossing comes with Israel imposing new restrictions on the movement of evacuating the sick and wounded through the Kerem Shalom crossing. This is an operation organized by the World Health Organization twice or three times a week at best, or at least once. It included wounded, sick, and humanitarian cases, including students and others, and they were transported from the Gaza Strip to Jordan and from there to different countries. It included dozens, and sometimes the number approached 100 or more.
According to a security source concerned with the movement of the crossings in Gaza who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat, “The number of the evacuation flight that left the Gaza Strip on Sunday was reduced to only 10 patients and their companions, while other patients were returned and other evacuation cases were asked not to go to the meeting point in preparation for their transfer to the Kerem Shalom crossing without giving any reasons.
The source explained that some of the authorities supervising the travel process explained that there will be new restrictions imposed on the numbers that will be allowed to travel for security reasons that Israel did not clarify.
In a related context, Israeli attacks continued inside the Gaza Strip, and 6 Palestinians were killed from late Sunday evening until Monday afternoon, including 5 who were killed in two separate raids in Mawasi Rafah and Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli drone attacked a tent for displaced people in Mawasi Khan Yunis, killing 3 Palestinians, including Islamic Jihad activists, while two other Hamas activists were killed in a raid that targeted them while they were in the Mawasi Rafah area, at dawn on Monday. It was also announced that a sixth Palestinian was killed as a result of critical wounds he sustained a few days ago in a raid that targeted him in Gaza City. 4 Palestinians were injured by gunfire from Israeli vehicles and drones in separate areas near the Yellow Line.
Residents of the Gaza Strip saw Israeli bulldozers demolishing homes in the newly expanded area inside the yellow line east of Deir al-Balah in the center of the Strip, coinciding with gunfire and artillery shelling that targeted the western areas of the city.
In this context, the General Directorate of Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip expressed its deep concern about the high rate of forced displacement of citizens, the damage to hundreds of displaced persons’ tents, and the cracking of many previously targeted homes located in the vicinity of the “yellow line” east of the Gaza Strip.
She warned that the continuation of this Israeli aggression has increased the suffering of thousands of displaced people, pushing them to search for new shelter places, and also puts them at risk of collapses in their homes due to their cracks. She appealed to the countries of the world and the guarantors of the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip to intervene urgently, and to put pressure on the occupation to stop this three-year war against citizens.
