In a sudden initiative, Yemen’s Houthis have expressed their willingness to conclude a prisoner exchange deal with Saudi Arabia, whereby Saudi prisoners in Yemen will be released in exchange for the release of 60 of Hamas detainees in the kingdom. The following lines discuss the impact of the Houthi intervention on the Hamas detainees in Saudi Arabia. Will Hamas’ relations with Saudi Arabia become more overwrought, […]
Dr Adnan Abu Amer, Middle East Monitor
12 posts
![Gaza decides to close border to protect against coronavirus in Gaza on 16 March 2020 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]](https://1buv.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/hamas-politically-active-to-combat-covid-19-in-the-gaza-strip-middle-east-monitor.jpg)
Once the first infections with the coronavirus were announced in the Gaza Strip, Hamas showed intense political engagement by making contacts with several countries to provide aid to the strip. The movement’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, contacted the emir of Qatar, the Turkish president and the Iranian foreign minister, while he called on the king of Saudi Arabia to release Hamas’ detainees in the kingdom’s prisons for […]
When Israel revealed that Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and the chief of the Israel Defence Forces Southern Command, General Herzl Halevi, made a “secret” visit to Qatar recently, the Qataris and Hamas leadership denied any intentions to arrange high-level meetings between the Islamic Resistance Movement and Israeli leaders. According to Israel, during one visit by Hamas leaders to Egypt, the government in Cairo proposed a meeting […]
On 2 December last year, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh left the Gaza Strip through the Rafah Crossing on a visit that was supposed to last for a few days. He was to hold extensive discussions with Egyptian intelligence officials on the situation in Gaza; ways to stop the Israeli attacks against the Palestinians; the holding of Palestinian elections; and reconciliation with Fatah. It was a surprise […]
Given the Palestinians’ rejection of Donald Trump’s “deal of the century”, there is talk about “buying” their approval with financial inducements and privileges. Political pressure will be exerted until they consent. The so-called “peace plan” was unveiled piecemeal, first at the Bahrain Conference last June, under the banner of “Peace for Prosperity”. Washington had already imposed its policy to strangle the Palestinians so that they would […]
After the massive Palestinian protests against the recent normalisation meetings between PA leaders and Israeli figures, a member of the Fatah Central Committee and head of the PLO’s Committee for Interaction with Israeli Society resigned. Surprisingly, President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Muhammad Al-Madani’s resignation and granted the members of the Committee complete political cover. This was viewed as a direct challenge to the Palestinian general public’s rejection […]
Israel has re-elected Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing camp, in a surprising result given the corruption charges against him and a forthcoming trial. Nevertheless, he duly went ahead and defeated his opponents. Netanyahu’s victory provides us with an opportunity to consider whether corruption has permeated Israeli society as it shifts ever more to the right. Does electing a fellow right-winger matter more to voters […]
There is a rising tension between the UNRWA Staff Union and the administration, as the last two weeks have witnessed, with waves of strikes and protests being held following the UN agency’s decision to downsize and reduce its services. This includes cancelling all privileges granted to Palestinian employees, stopping the work of the emergency program, laying off around 500 workers, stopping contact-based work, and opening the […]
Just days away from its third General Election in less than a year, Israel launched another attack on the Gaza Strip which began with a war crime when a military bulldozer dragged the corpse of Mohammed Al-Naim in front of journalists and in broad daylight. The Palestinian resistance responded by firing rockets, and Israel sent its air force to bomb the Gaza Strip, as well as […]
Just two days after the announcement of the “deal of the century” in late January, Gina Haspel, director of the CIA, secretly arrived in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and met with Majed Faraj, head of the Palestinian Intelligence Service, and a number of senior Palestinian officials. They assured her that Palestinian-American security coordination would not be affected after the announcement of the deal. This […]
At the height of monitoring the Palestinian reactions to the “deal of the century”, Israel warned of the possibility of the outbreak of escalations on the ground in the West Bank. There were fears of members of the Palestinian security services and members of Fatah joining these escalations, as was the case during the Second Intifada. There were Israeli fears that matters would get out of […]
Hamas has announced that its leader’s foreign tour will continue throughout 2020 in order to complete a very busy political and speaking schedule. The fact that Ismail Haniyeh will thus be out of the Gaza Strip for an entire year raises several important questions. Why will he be abroad for such a long time even though his regional visits only needed a few weeks? Has Egypt […]