Abbas hopes for peace talks once Israel forms a new government

Mixed · 2Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday 29 October 2026 that he hoped the election of a new Israeli government would allow peace talks to resume. 1 2 Mixed · 2Abbas spoke during a meeting with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia, saying the Palestinians had for many years been "extending a hand to the Israeli side" so that Israel and Palestine could live in security, stability and peace. 1 2 Right · 1He added: "We hope that, immediately after a new Israeli government is formed, we will be able to engage in dialogue together." 1

Mixed · 2With almost all ballots counted in Israel's election, neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc nor the opposition bloc led by former military chief Gadi Eisenkot looked able to secure a parliamentary majority, so forming a coalition could take weeks. 1 2 Right · 1AFP, whose copy both outlets ran, described the Israeli-Palestinian peace process as stalled for years, despite a growing number of countries recognising the State of Palestine. 1 Mixed · 2AFP also said settlement construction and violence against Palestinians have soared in the occupied West Bank under Netanyahu, and that ministers in his hard-right coalition have openly called for annexing the West Bank and for policies encouraging Palestinians to leave it and Gaza. 1 2

Right · 1AFP's background notes that Netanyahu led Israel in a war that has left much of Gaza in rubble after Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack, and that Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967; more than 500,000 Israelis live there in settlements illegal under international law, among some three million Palestinians. 1