Palestinians take another step in preparations for first election in 15 years msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Some may recall the killing of Musa Arafat, Yasser Arafat s cousin, before the Hamas takeover of Gaza. The gangland-style assassination of General Musa Arafat – security advisor to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmud Abbas and former head of PA Military Intelligence and the PA’s National Security forces in Gaza – on September 7, 2005, was another sign of the PA’s inability to impose law and order in the Palestinian areas since Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. In a pre-dawn raid, 100 heavily armed men from the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees opened fire on Musa Arafat’s Gaza home. Following a fierce thirty-minute shootout, the attackers overcame Arafat’s personal bodyguards, dragged him into the street, and shot him in the head.
Fatah kicks out senior member Nasser al-Kidwa ahead of Palestinia alaraby.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from alaraby.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
March 11, 2021 - 1:57 AM
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territory - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party has stripped a senior official of his membership after he announced he would run on his own electoral list, in the latest sign of internal turmoil ahead of elections planned for later this year.
Nasser al-Kidwa, the 67-year-old nephew of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, had announced he would form his own list consisting of independents, business people and youth. He previously served as Palestinian foreign minister and representative to the United Nations.
He had long been seen as a possible successor to the 85-year-old Abbas, and held talks with the popular jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti about possibly joining his list. In the end, Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison after a military court convicted him of terrorism charges during the 2000-2005 uprising, declined to endorse al-Kidwa.
The main Palestinian factions on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to holding their first elections in 15 years and cited progress in resolving the bitter rift between President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party and the Islamic militant group Hamas.