The current Palestinian reconciliation agreement looks like it could actually hold, largely due to regional and internal changes over the past few years. What does this bode for the peace process? A former minister in the Palestinian government explains.

The reconciliation agreement signed on Thursday in Cairo by rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas was leaked by the Hamas-linked website Palinfo.

Hamas has reportedly agreed to halt its attempts to carry out attacks against Israelis from the West Bank under the Palestinian reconciliation agreement signed Thursday with its rival faction Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian unity deal signed in Cairo last week between leaders of Fatah and Hamas almost collapsed at the last minute because of serious disagreements over security issues, Middle East Eye has learnt.

Exiled senior Fatah member Mohammed Dahlan has been investigated by the International Criminal Court for his involvement with Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the second son of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, documents seen by Middle East Eye can reveal.

Israeli authorities began construction for new units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Hamatos on Sunday night.

Some 1,600 new apartments are set to be built in the neighborhood, which is over the Green Line, in the south of the capital.

“When Israel announces a lockdown of the occupied territories, it creates a false impression that the Palestinians normally have freedom of movement – that hasn’t existed since January 1991,” writes Amira Hass.

Rights groups have condemned the closure of Palestinian institutions as a violation of international law and an attempt to stifle Palestinian political, social, cultural and economic development in occupied East Jerusalem.

A short animated film, produced especially for Gisha in Tel Aviv and Gaza, tells the story of the closure on the Strip and severe restrictions on movement through the eyes of Noor, a young girl with big dreams for the future, who receives a once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit Al Awda candy factory and meet its owner, Gaza’s very own Willy Wonka.

Gaza’s Rafah border may reopen soon now that Fatah and Hamas have agreed to a reconciliation deal. But that doesn’t mean that the EU mission, which has been sitting and waiting near Tel Aviv at a cost of millions of euros a year, will be going back to work anytime soon.

“As the Right consolidates its power over nearly every sphere of Israeli politics, it is slowly turning citizenship into a matter of ideology. Non-Jewish citizens aren’t the only ones who will suffer,” writes Marzuq Al-Halabi.

“The prime minister is trying to turn human rights and anti-occupation groups into a subversive boogie monster, this time by conflating them with Western democracy’s contemporary super-villain — Russian election interference,” writes Michael Omer-Man.

“We will not sit with them, unequivocally,” Gabbay said, speaking at a cultural event in Beersheba. “I do not see anything that connects us to them or allows us to be in the same government with them.”

Israel must immediately terminate its relations with the Palestinian Authority due to the deal it signed with Hamas in Cairo, Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett said on Saturday night.