Palestinian Vice President Hussein Al-Sheikh said Thursday that he hopes Israel’s elections will produce a partner who believes in ending the occupation and achieving a just peace.
اضافة اعلان
In a post on X, Al-Sheikh said: “The Israeli elections are an internal Israeli matter. We hope there will be a partner who believes in ending the occupation and in a just peace.”
He added that “the key to security, peace and stability in the region lies in implementing international legitimacy resolutions.”
Al-Sheikh’s remarks came as the counting of votes from Tuesday’s Israeli elections continued, with neither political bloc yet able to secure the majority needed to form a government.
According to results from 91% of the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc had won 53 seats, compared with 48 for the opposition Change Bloc led by Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot, while Arab parties had secured 19 seats, according to Israel’s Channel 12.
A political bloc needs 61 of the Knesset’s 120 seats to form a government.
At the party level, Netanyahu’s Likud led with 26 seats, followed by Eisenkot’s Yashar with 21 seats.
Netanyahu and Eisenkot both oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state, despite United Nations resolutions supporting its creation under the two-state solution.
Peace negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides have been stalled since April 2014, following Israel’s withdrawal from the two-state solution, its refusal to halt settlement construction in the Palestinian territories, and its failure to release a group of Palestinian prisoners.
