Palestinian factions are racing against time to complete their internal and external consultations with other factions to form electoral lists to participate in the legislative elections scheduled to be held on the twenty-eighth of next November, amid intense communications taking place to set a date for holding a “comprehensive national dialogue” in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, during the coming period.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine presented its electoral list, while the Palestinian National Initiative movement presented a list that included independents, while the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front announced the submission of a list representing it, at a time when none of the major Palestinian factions, whether Fatah or Hamas, presented their lists.
The Fatah movement holds intensive internal meetings in which it consults on many issues related to the elections. It holds meetings at the level of the leadership and its popular and mass bases in preparation for the competition, stressing that it will participate in it on one list, amid attempts by it to unify its ranks after it held a series of meetings, including communicating and meeting with leaders from the “Reformist Movement” (dissident from Fatah) led by Muhammad Dahlan, and with those close to the prisoner Marwan Barghouti.
The Hamas movement is also conducting internal and external consultations with other factions to form a unified national list. Some factions are still hesitant to participate in it, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, while the Democratic Front and the National Initiative movement refused to join it after they were studying it.
The Islamic Jihad movement supports the national list proposal submitted by Hamas, along with the “Resistance Committees” and other small factions.
A source familiar with the details of the consultations told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Gaza factions’ talks are continuing with the “Dahlan Movement,” which the source said “is seeking, for its part, to form a list mainly of independents supported by national figures without any of the Hamas leaders being present in it for reasons that appear to be related to an American veto under pressure from Israel.” However, two sources from the “Jihad” movement denied this trend in a separate statement.
According to the two sources from “Jihad,” communications are still continuing, and names have been chosen to form the national list, and the participation of several factions “has become largely decided,” according to one of the sources. While the second source indicated that he was waiting for a decision on the position of the “Popular Front” to join it after attempts to run in the elections with a unified list with the “Democratic Front” and other leftist factions failed.
As of Monday afternoon, 7 lists had registered themselves in the Central Election Commission’s registry, while 6 lists had been registered on Saturday, which was the first day of receiving registration requests.
This comes in light of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issuing a decision to extend the period for submitting electoral lists for a period of 18 days instead of 12 days, which was set from last Saturday until the seventh of next October, but it was extended to be until October 13.
National dialogue
Many factions sought to postpone the legislative elections and move towards holding a comprehensive national dialogue aimed at putting the Palestinian house in order completely. However, the Fatah movement’s insistence on holding elections, at least in its public positions, sparked a state of confusion among some factions, at a time when Hamas asserts its complete readiness for them.
Khalil Al-Hayya, head of the Hamas political bureau, said in a televised interview two days ago that his movement proposed to all factions, including Fatah, to join a unified list, but he rejected its proposal. Therefore, it is working to form the broadest national coalition to participate in the elections. He stressed that his movement is ready for any comprehensive national dialogue, and that he is ready to meet President Abbas, put an end to the division, and work together to put the Palestinian house in order.
In his recent speech before the United Nations General Assembly, Abbas stressed that the elections would be held on time, calling for a comprehensive national dialogue. In this regard, the Fatah movement took a decision that observers considered surprising to form a committee to hold dialogues with the various Palestinian factions to hold a comprehensive national dialogue, something that the movement had rejected until recently. During meetings it held with factional delegations in Cairo recently, it canceled a meeting with Hamas, as sources revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat at the time.
The Fatah Committee is formed under the chairmanship of the Secretary of the Movement's Central Committee, Jibril Rajoub, and the membership of Muhammad Shtayyeh and Majid Faraj. The former began making contacts with several Palestinian factions to hold bilateral meetings in preparation for a comprehensive national dialogue. Among those factions that he communicated directly with was the Hamas movement, with whom he had recently communicated several times before assuming the position of Secretary of the Committee, as two Fatah sources confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat.
At the beginning of this month, several factional sources confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that there are positive signs of the possibility of successfully holding a comprehensive national meeting in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, and that the Fatah movement has become more open to this option, as this effort came after persistent attempts by Egyptian officials to push for this dialogue during recent months to get the Palestinians out of the political impasse they have been experiencing since the start of the Gaza war.
Israeli settlement movements supported by official assurances renewed fears of dividing the city of Ramallah, which represents the depths of the occupied West Bank and the headquarters of the Palestinian National Authority, at a time when settlers continued to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque under heavy protection from the occupation forces.
The road bearing the number “463” has returned to the forefront, located in the heart of the urban area of Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate. Although it has been closed for more than a quarter of a century; A few days ago, extremist settlement movements reiterated talk about his return to work, while the Hebrew newspaper "Haaretz", on Monday, reported statements from an Israeli army spokesman officially confirming that "work is being done to create special security conditions for future movement through this road" without providing other details.
“Route 463” undermines Palestinian geographical contiguity, and reopening it means allowing settler groups to use it to move between settlements established on the territory of the occupied West Bank.
The Hebrew newspaper “Olam Katan,” affiliated with the “Religious Zionism” party led by the Minister of Finance and Minister of Settlements in the Israeli Ministry of Defense, Bezalel Smotrich, reported last Thursday that “the Israeli army intends to open (Route 463) to use it for movement by settlers from one area to another.”
Five days after the Hebrew newspaper “Haaretz” directed questions in this regard to the Israeli army spokesman, he responded, confirming the news about the intention to restart work on the road.
According to Haaretz, part of the road will pass through Area A, which Israeli law prohibits Israelis from entering as it is considered dangerous areas, and stipulates that anyone entering it will commit a criminal offence, indicating that reopening the road requires obtaining permits to establish new military sites on both sides of it, specifically near Palestinian population centers, and establishing military checkpoints that obstruct the movement of Palestinians within, to and from the city.
According to the newspaper, this road extends a distance of up to 10 kilometers, between Al-Bireh and Al-Jalazoun Camp in the east, until Ein Qinya in the west, and it is part of a road network planned and drawn by the Ramallah Municipality, and it is known as the “Chinese Road,” after the project’s financier, with the aim of reducing congestion in the city.
Israel Gantz, head of the so-called settlement “Yesha Council,” confirmed that the decision to open the road had already been taken, and that preparations had begun for that by the Israeli army after a budget was allocated for it, as the Olam Katan newspaper reported.
Haaretz says that this indicates the strengthening of the influence of the settlers, who represent the dominant force within the Israeli government, and it also indicates a direction and path that is currently being followed in other areas of the West Bank, pointing out that the settlement institutions and settlement residents have intensified their pressure on the Israeli army in recent months, demanding that this wide road in the heart of the Palestinian capital be opened to their movements.
The newspaper pointed out steps that received widespread media coverage by the settlers, who in recent days were raising Israeli flags and showing off in front of the cameras their arrival near a public park, and placing banners for them in the same area, indicating that their arrival to the place requires military assistance, or at least notifying the Israeli army.
How did the idea of “Route 463” begin?
The route of the road that the settlers demanded to walk on was built in 1994 between the settlements of Beit El and Dolev, by the Benjamin Settlement Council, without the approval of the army and the planning authorities in the Civil Administration. It was called the “Flerstein Axis,” and it was constructed after the Oslo Accords in 1993 with the aim of reducing the area that would be handed over to the Palestinian Authority at that time.
With the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000, the Israeli army prevented settlers and Palestinians from using this road, and a closed iron gate was placed at its western end, between Ein Qinya and the Dolev settlement, until the travel ban imposed on the Palestinians gradually faded, but their entry into the Ramallah area from the west remained prohibited. Because the Talmon and Dolev settlements and their settlement outposts seized an area rich in springs and olive groves in the surrounding villages, and prevented the movement of Palestinians there, as Haaretz reports.
According to the newspaper, approximately 400,000 people live in the Ramallah-Al-Bireh Governorate in 80 sections, divided between the center of the governorate and its outskirts, and towns, villages and refugee camps, in addition to gatherings of shepherds and Bedouins, covering an area of approximately 855 square kilometers. Like other areas of the West Bank that followed the Oslo Accords, it is divided into isolated enclaves across Area C, settlements, and bypass roads. The entire governorate includes at least 35 isolated enclaves, six of which are relatively large, while the rest are rural clusters separated from each other, in addition to several isolated villages.
Over the years, the Israeli army has erected dozens of iron gates and earth and stone barriers that limit and slow movement inside and outside each area. Since October 7, 2023, more checkpoints and barriers have been added, and 11 settlement outposts were recently established in Area B (administratively affiliated with the Palestinian Authority) in the Ramallah area, which strengthens the military presence, and in turn further restricts movement within the region.
Haaretz says: “This is the role of Highway 463, if it is opened to settler movement: disrupting Palestinian traffic and dividing the city,” indicating that from previous experiences with similar methods, maintaining settler security requires seizing more public and private lands along the road to establish military checkpoints to monitor the Palestinians. This will also lead to the separation of eight villages and two large urban neighborhoods in the northern part from the area south of the road.
She pointed out that there are difficulties that will face the work of major institutions, including Ramallah Consulting Hospital, the Arab American University, a central school, and a sewage treatment plant, due to the opening of this road and the restrictions on Palestinian traffic through it.
The newspaper emphasized that the settlers' plans can only be implemented with clear government support, noting that the seizure of land and the escalation of violence...all of this heralds the continued fragmentation of the Palestinian land and its division into separate areas, making access to it difficult.
Attacks and incursions continue
The efforts to divide Ramallah coincided with the increase in the frequency of settler attacks against Palestinians in the villages of the governorate. At dawn on Monday, settlers burned vehicles and wrote racist slogans during their attack on a house in the village of Deir Abu Mishal, northwest of the governorate, before others set fire to an agricultural tractor and wrote similar slogans during their attack on the village of Ras Karkar, west of the governorate.
Dozens of Palestinians confronted an attempt by settlers to storm a house in the vicinity of the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, while others, early on Monday morning, stole olives from the towns of Sinjil, Turmus Ayya, and Umm Safa, north of Ramallah.
These events, and the burning of vehicles in particular, have been repeated in several villages and towns in Ramallah in recent days, coinciding with ongoing and ongoing attacks in other areas of the West Bank, amid Palestinian condemnations and Israeli claims that these events are being investigated, without announcing the arrest of any of their perpetrators.
In recent days, Israeli security officials have reiterated the deteriorating situation in the West Bank, which prompted the Israeli army leadership to reinforce its forces in the West Bank areas for fear that settler attacks would lead to Palestinian reactions, as happened in two recent attacks near Ramallah, which led to the death of a settler and the serious wounding of a soldier, the son of the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Yehiel Laiter.
On Monday morning, dozens of colonists stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Mughrabi Gate side, with heavy protection from the Israeli police. Yesterday, 1,500 colonists and rabbis stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and performed Talmudic rituals and prayers, especially near Bab Al-Qattanin, one of the mosque’s doors, in conjunction with the introduction of so-called “plant offerings” into its courtyards, in addition to chanting songs, holding dance circles, and performing epic prostrations and collective prostrations, in scenes that reflect a continuous escalation in the imposition of Talmudic rituals inside the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and attempts to change the existing historical and legal reality. In it, according to the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA). These raids come amid the Israeli authorities tightening their military measures in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City, and imposing restrictions on the entry and movement of worshipers.
Wafa reported that this September witnessed repeated incursions, including the entry of 480 settlers on the 13th of the same month, coinciding with the so-called “Hebrew New Year,” and about 100 settlers on September 20, during “Yom Kippur.” According to Jerusalem Governorate data reported by the Palestinian News and Information Agency, 40,661 settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque from the beginning of the year until the end of August 2026, while decisions to remove Jerusalemites from the mosque amounted to about 800 decisions from the beginning of the year until the beginning of this month.
