TEL AVIV (Sputnik) – The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has asked the Israeli authorities for permission for PNA leader Mahmoud Abbas to visit Gaza in the near future, the Walla portal reported, citing informed sources.
Abbas announced on August 15 that he intended to visit the Gaza Strip.
According to the portal, the Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Hussein al-Sheikh sent a corresponding letter to the head of the Israeli National Security Council, Tzachi Hanegbi. The Palestinian side has requested that Abbas enter the city through one of the Israeli checkpoints, but not through the Rafah checkpoint on the border of the enclave and Egypt.
As Walla specified, Abbas is counting on a refusal from Israel in order to «use this to criticize» the Jewish state in the future. At the same time, according to the portal, permission from Israel to enter Gaza will be a «significant political victory» for Abbas over the Palestinian movement Hamas and will serve as a signal of the possible return of the PNA to the Palestinian enclave.
This decision will be made personally by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but no comments have yet been received from his office, the publication said.
Netanyahu has previously stated on numerous occasions that after the end of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, Israel will not allow representatives from the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank to come to power there.
The Palestinian leader has not visited the Gaza Strip since Hamas came to power in 2007. The PNA does not carry out any activity in the Palestinian enclave, except for some civil issues. The last time PNA representatives visited the enclave was in 2018, when an explosive device was used to attack the motorcade of then-Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.
