Ramallah (AFP) — The son of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Monday said Fatah would prioritize Gaza and return it “to the fold of Palestinian legitimacy,” the day after being elected to the movement’s top decision-making body.
Fatah’s first congress in a decade came as the Palestinian movement faces existential challenges in the wake of the devastating Gaza war.
Veteran Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, 90, was reelected as head of the movement, with his 64-year-old son Yasser Abbas securing a place on its central committee.
In his first remarks since his election, Yasser Abbas said he would focus on “Gaza first, prisoners and the families of martyrs, and the refugee camps.”
“We will work to return Gaza to the fold of Palestinian legitimacy,” he told journalists in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
Fatah has historically been the dominant force within the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole representative of the Palestinian people in international forums.
It groups most Palestinian factions but excludes Islamist movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
“Achieving full national unity requires agreement to all the conditions for joining the Palestine Liberation Organization in all its provisions: one law, one state, one legitimate weapon, and recognition that the organization is the sole legitimate representative” of the Palestinian people, Yasser Abbas said.
“Whoever accepts that is welcome.”
