Palestinian President Abbas ‘hopes for peace’ after Israeli elections

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he hoped that Israel’s parliamentary elections on Tuesday could help bring peace. Right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a close battle with centrist Benny Gantz in the polls. Without supporting a particular candidate, Abbas said he was following the elections, AFP reported. He said he hoped the new government would understand “peace is in ours, theirs and the world’s interests.” According to him, “all that we hope is there will be a just way, a correct way to reach peace.” He added that “we don’t need any government that doesn’t believe in peace.” Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have been frozen since the US-brokered process collapsed in 2014 amid mutual accusations of blame.