Abbas said to ask Israel to allow Gaza visit as PA works to line up support for trip
Official request to Tzachi Hanegbi indicates Palestinian leader wants to enter Strip via Israeli crossing and not through Egypt, Walla reports; Netanyahu thought to have final say
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has reportedly asked Israel to grant him access to the Gaza Strip, seemingly looking to make good on a promise made last week to visit the beleaguered enclave.
The PA president said in a speech to Turkey’s parliament on Thursday that he would travel to Gaza, even if it meant risking his life, for the first time since the Fatah faction he controls was violently ousted from the enclave by its Hamas rivals in 2007.
On Sunday, Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh formally asked Israel to permit Abbas to visit Gaza, using one of Israel’s crossings into the enclave and not via Rafah in Egypt, the Walla news site reported Monday.
The request was made in a letter sent to National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi from al-Sheikh, who also serves as the PA’s liaison to Israel, according to Walla. A copy was sent to Washington as well, the site reported.
A Palestinian source familiar with Abbas’s plans to travel to Gaza told The Times of Israel Monday that Abbas had appealed to the US and other members of the international community to help shore up the excursion.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the PA was expecting to have to line up both Israel’s okay and international support to arrange the trip into the territory, which is ruled by the Hamas terror group and has been devastated by over 10 months of war sparked by the October 7 massacre.
“Hamas’s approval is also important,” the source added. Fatah, which controls the PA in the West Bank, has been locked in a bitter rivalry with Hamas for decades, though the factions recently started a fresh round of rapprochement talks after years of halting progress on reaching a detente.
As part of a campaign to garner support for Abbas’s trip, the PA has made contact with the UN and the permanent members of the UN Security Council, with Arab and Muslim countries, with members of the European Union and the African Union, and other countries, the Palestinian Ma’an news outlet reported this week.
No date has been announced for the planned visit.
The source familiar with the arrangements said the trip would not take place before the conclusion of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a truce-hostage deal, currently the subject of intense diplomatic activity in Qatar and Egypt.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s brutal assault on Israel on October 7, in which some 1,200 people were killed inside Israel and 251 were taken hostage in Gaza, over a hundred of whom remain abducted. Israel tightened a blockade on the Strip and invaded in response, with the goal of toppling Hamas and freeing the hostages. Jerusalem is in midst of negotiating a deal with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediation that could halt the war and see hostages released.
There was no comment on the request from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who would have final say on whether to grant Abbas entry, according to Walla.
Even should Abbas seek to enter Gaza from Egypt via the Rafah crossing, some level of coordination with Israel would be required, with the Israel Defense Forces controlling the Gaza side of the terminal.
An Abbas trip to Gaza following a truce deal would constitute a powerful signal of the PA’s readiness to re-assume administrative control of the enclave in place of Hamas. The idea of having a reformed PA manage the Strip after the war has been championed by the international community, but largely rejected by Netanyahu, who alleges that the PA is insufficiently distant from Hamas or terror.
Hamas and its allies also say they reject the Strip being administered by the PA or any other Western-backed entity, and would likely see a visit by Abbas as a challenge to what remains of the group’s control of the Strip.
In 2018, PA prime minister Rami Hamdallah was targeted by a car bomb in a failed assassination attempt while visiting the Strip, underlining the dangers for such a visit by Abbas even if fighting has stopped.
According to Walla, Israeli officials believe the PA expects the request for an entry permit to be turned down, allowing Abbas to collect political points for appearing willing to travel to Gaza while opening Jerusalem up to more global criticism for blocking him.
In October, Abbas told US President Joe Biden’s administration that he would not return to Gaza “on top of an Israeli tank” and would only agree to retake control of Gaza as part of a larger statehood arrangement, according to a Palestinian official at the time.
Reuters contributed to this report.
