Gantz hosts Abbas at his home in PA leader’s first meeting in Israel in a decade

Defense Minister Benny Gantz hosted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at his home in Rosh Ha’ayin on Tuesday night. It marked the first time the Palestinian leader met with a senior Israeli official inside Israeli territory since 2010.

The meeting was Gantz and Abbas’s second since the new Israeli government was formed in June. According to the Defense Ministry, it lasted two and a half hours; part of it was between Abbas and Gantz alone.

“The Defense Minister emphasized the shared interest in strengthening security cooperation, preserving security stability, and preventing terrorism and violation,” Gantz’s office said in a statement.

Gantz also told Abbas that he intended to continue advancing “confidence-building measures in civil and economic fields,” according to the Defense Ministry.

Key Abbas advisor Hussein al-Sheikh, the Palestinian official responsible for managing ties with Israel, confirmed the meeting in a statement. Al-Sheikh accompanied Abbas, along with Palestinian intelligence chief Majed Faraj.

Al-Sheikh added that the two had discussed political questions and settler violence, among other subjects.

“The meeting dealt with the importance of creating a political horizon that leads to a political solution… as well as the tense conditions in the field due to the practices of settlers,” al-Sheikh said in tweet.

The current Israeli government has pledged to prop up the Palestinian Authority and strengthen its ailing economy. Israeli officials, including Gantz, have said they see Abbas’s regime as the only alternative to an empowered Hamas in the West Bank.

“If the Palestinian Authority is stronger, Hamas will be weaker. When the Palestinian Authority has more ability to enforce order, there will be more security, and our hand will be forced less,” Gantz said in late August.

The current Israeli government, to that end, has loaned the Palestinian Authority NIS 500 million to ease its crippling debt crisis; provided permits to undocumented Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza; and increased the number of work permits in an effort to pump the West Bank economy.

Gantz first spoke on the phone with Abbas in mid-July. The two later formally met in Ramallah in late August, marking the first such high-level contact between senior Israeli and Palestinian decision-makers in over a decade.

Tuesday’s meeting came weeks after Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Frej said it could soon happen, as part of efforts to strengthen the PA and calm tensions.