Ramallah, Jan 1 : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel Thursday of trying to sabotage Palestinian achievements - mainly the enforcement of law and order, stability and security in the West Bank - through its military incursions and killing of Palestinians.

In an address in Ramallah to mark the 45th anniversary of the first attack by his Fatah organisation against Israel, on Jan 3, 1965, Abbas said the Palestinian people will not fall into the Israel trap and resort to violence to retaliate against these Israeli actions.

Ramallah, Dec 15 : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated Tuesday his determination not to seek re-election to the presidency, and said he had other options, which he would announce at a later date.

"I will not run again for the presidency in any upcoming presidential elections," the president told the 129-member Palestine Liberation Organisation Central Council meeting in Ramallah, repeating an announcement originally made Nov 5.

Ramallah, Dec 11 : Tensions in the West Bank rose Friday as settlers torched a Palestinian village mosque in anger at a government decision to partially suspend Israeli construction in the occupied territory.

Hundreds of Palestinians, in return, rioted after Friday's prayers, burning tires and throwing rocks in at least two locations in the West Bank.

Unidentified settlers overnight entered the village of Yasouf, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, forced the door of the local mosque and poured gasoline in the library, burning bookshelves and prayer rugs.

Ramallah - The Palestinian Central Elections Committee announced Thursday that it will be unable to hold elections on the scheduled date of January 24 next year.

CEC Chairman Hana Nasser said the main reasons were the impossibility of holding elections when the Islamist Hamas movement would not allow a poll in the Gaza Strip and Israel would not allow voting in occupied East Jerusalem.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced last month that the elections would be held on January 24. (dpa)

Ramallah  - Members of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party staged demonstrations Friday, urging the Palestinian president to run for a second term, while the rival Hamas movement quickly declared his announcement of the previous night that he would not an admission of "failure."

Fatah organized marches after Friday's prayers in Ramallah and a number of other West Bank towns, in which hundreds of supporters participated, calling on the moderate Palestinian president to reverse his decision to seek re-election.

The movement said it was planning larger rallies later in the weekend or next week.

Ramallah  - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will not seek re-election in January if there is no credible peace process with Israel, a senior Palestinian official said Wednesday.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that if Israel did not stop all construction in West Bank settlements, then there was no chance of resuming peace negotiations. Peace talks were broken off in December as Israel headed into new elections.

Ramallah - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Saturday defended his decision to hold national elections on January 24 saying it was a constitutional requirement.

Abbas issued a decree on Friday night declaring presidential and legislative elections in January to be held in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

The mandate of the present legislative council, dominated by the Islamist movement Hamas, which is strongly opposed to holding election in January, ends its four-year term on January 24.

Ramallah - The secular Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday signed a long-awaited, Egyptian proposal that seeks to reconcile it with its bitter rival Hamas.

A Fatah representative involved in the Egyptian-mediated negotiations with Hamas said he would bring the signed paper to Cairo on Thursday.

Hamas, the radical Islamist movement ruling Gaza, has yet to sign the agreement, which seeks to end a more than two-year-old split among the Palestinians.

Ramallah - A 15-year-old Palestinian critically wounded when Israeli soldiers opened fire on him in the West Bank Monday night, died of his wounds early Tuesday, official Palestinian reports said.

Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, reported that Muhammad Nayef, a resident of Jalazon refugee camp, on the northern outskirts of Ramallah, was seriously wounded when soldiers based at nearby Beit El military camp and settlement opened fire at a group of youths in the area.

Ramallah  - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Monday night that Europe supports Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's vision of an independent Palestinian state that could be established within two years.

Speaking at a news conference after an hour-long meeting with Fayyad in Ramallah, Solana said that "we support the Fayyad plan. It is very good and it shows the fact that the Palestinian government is functioning."

Ramallah - Palestinians have not yet received an invitation for a three-way meeting in New York between US President Barack Obama, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, an aide to the Palestinian leader said Wednesday.

Yasser Abed Rabbo was commenting on reports of a possible mini- summit between the three men at the United Nations next month.

Ramallah - A majority of Israelis were unhappy with the results of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah conference which ended Saturday, according to a joint Palestinian-Israeli poll published Thursday.

The poll was conducted jointly by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Police and Survey Research and the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It was conducted between August 9 and 15.

Ramallah/Cairo - Senior Egyptian intelligence officials were in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday for separate talks with rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas.

"The Egyptian brothers were here to explore the stances of the factions in order to reach an agreeable reconciliation deal," Ahmed Qureia, the head of Fatah's delegation to the talks, told reporters in Ramallah.

Ramallah - Elections to the central committee of the Fatah party were democratic and transparent, party leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday, rejecting claims of electoral fraud by one unsuccessful candidate.

"Fatah protected democracy, pluralism and the voice of others," he told reporters at the first meeting of the newly-elected central committee, whose composition was officially announced Wednesday night.

Ramallah - Fatah is the Arabic acronym for Harakat al-Tahrir al-Filistinieh (Palestinian liberation movement).

Yasser Arafat founded the movement in 1958, when he was a student in Cairo. The goal of the new movement was the liberation of what had been the territory of Palestine from Israel.

On January 1, 1965 the movement launched its first attack against Israel, from a base in Jordan which at the time ruled the West Bank.

Ramallah - The upcoming sixth party conference of the Palestinian movement Fatah saw the arrival of hundreds of the movement's senior members-in-exile into the West Bank, officials said Saturday.

Hundreds of other Fatah members from the Gaza Strip, controlled by rival movement Hamas, have so far been denied the right to attend the conference, which was last held in 1989. The two parties are at odds, although a reconciliation process is underway.

Ramallah  - Israel is destroying the Islamic and Christian character of Jerusalem, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas charged, following Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu's rejection of a US demand to half a proposed housing project in East Jerusalem.

"The holy city is today facing real dangers, while there are attempts to turn it into a full Jewish city by changing its Islamic and Christian landmarks," a statement published Monday by the official Wafa news agency quoted Abbas as telling Palestinians in Bethlehem.

Ramallah  - The Palestinian Authority (PA) Wednesday shut down the West Bank office of al-Jazeera, amid a storm over allegations that Palestinian Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas conspired with former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to assassinate late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

A statement issued by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's office cited incitement against the PA and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the reason for its decision to shut down the Qatar-based Arabic news channel's local office.

Ramallah  - Two world renowned musicians have recently cancelled performances in Ramallah after Palestinian political groups called for their boycott, Palestinian sources said Tuesday.

Argentinian-born Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, who has lived for years in Germany, has decided not to lead a local orchestra of young Palestinian musicians performing an Arabic opera scheduled to open Tuesday at the Ramallah Cultural Palace, they said.

Ramallah  - The Palestinian Authority's top Islamic cleric on Tuesday issued a fatwa, or Islamic ruling, banning the issuance of marriage contracts without a certificate proving that couples are free of the swine flu virus.

The religious ruling was issued after more swine flu cases were registered in the West Bank.