President of the Palestinian National Authority in the context of "Palestinian Security Services"

Fatah (/ˈfɑːtə, fəˈtɑː/ FAH-tə, fə-TAH; Arabic: فتح, romanized: Fatḥ [ˈfʌtɑħ]), officially the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (حركة التحرير الوطني الفلسطيني, Ḥarakat at-Taḥrīr al-Waṭanī l-Filasṭīnī), is a Palestinian nationalist and social democratic political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the second-largest party in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, is the chairman of Fatah.

Fatah was historically involved in armed struggle against the state of Israel (as well as Jordan during the Black September conflict in 1970–1971) and maintained a number of militant groups, which carried out attacks against military targets as well as Israeli civilians, notably including the 1978 coastal road massacre, though the group disengaged from armed conflict against Israel around the time of the Oslo Accords (1993–1995), when it recognised Israel, which gave it limited control over the occupied Palestinian territories. During the Second Intifada (2000–2005), Fatah intensified armed conflict against Israel, claiming responsibility for a number of suicide attacks. Fatah had been closely identified with the leadership of its founder and chairman, Yasser Arafat, until his death in 2004, when Farouk Kaddoumi constitutionally succeeded him to the position of Fatah Chairman and continued in the position until 2009, when Abbas was elected chairman. Since Arafat's death, factionalism within the ideologically diverse movement has become more apparent.

Legislative elections were held in the Palestinian territories on 25 January 2006 in order to elect the second Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the legislature of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The result was a victory for Hamas, contesting under the list name of Change and Reform, which received 44.45% of the vote and won 74 of the 132 seats, whilst the ruling Fatah received 41.43% of the vote and won 45 seats.

The newly elected PLC met for the first time on 18 February 2006. Incumbent Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei tendered his resignation on 26 January 2006, but remained interim Prime Minister at the request of President Mahmoud Abbas. On 20 February, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was nominated to form a new government. The new government with Haniyeh as Prime Minister was sworn in on 29 March. As of May 2025, no new elections have been held since this one.

Mahmoud Abbas (Arabic: مَحْمُود عَبَّاس, romanized: Maḥmūd ʿAbbās; born 15 November 1935), also known by the kunya Abu Mazen (Arabic: أَبُو مَازِن, ʾAbū Māzin), is a Palestinian politician who has been serving as the second president of Palestine and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) since 2005. He has also been the fourth chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) since 2004. Abbas is also a member of the Fatah party and was elected the party's chairman in 2009.

Abbas was elected on 9 January 2005 to serve as President of the Palestinian National Authority until 15 January 2009, but extended his term until the next election in 2010, citing the PLO constitution, and on 16 December 2009 was voted into office indefinitely by the PLO Central Council. As a result, Fatah's main rival, Hamas, initially announced that it would not recognize the extension or view Abbas as the rightful president. Nonetheless, Abbas is internationally recognized in his position(s) and Hamas and Fatah conducted numerous negotiations in the following years, leading to an agreement in April 2014 for a Unity Government (which lasted until October 2016) and to the recognition of his office by Hamas. Abbas was chosen to continue serving as president by the PLO Central Council on 23 November 2008.

The prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority was the position of the official head of government of the Palestinian Authority government, which operated between March 2003 and January 2013, when it was officially transformed into the State of Palestine. Some still refer to the position of the prime minister of the Gaza Strip as the prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority.

The Prime Minister's Office was created in 2003 to manage day-to-day activities of the Palestinian government, which had previously been performed by Yasser Arafat. The position was created because both Israel and the United States refused to negotiate directly with Arafat. The executive structure of the government lies under the president of the Palestinian National Authority.

The Palestinian Unity Government of June 2014 was a national unity government of the Palestinian National Authority under Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formed on 2 June 2014 following the Fatah-Hamas Reconciliation Agreement that had been signed on 23 April 2014. The ministers were nominally independent, but overwhelmingly seen as loyal to President Abbas and his Fatah movement or to smaller leftist factions, none of whom were believed to have close ties to Hamas. However, the Unity Government was not approved by the Legislative Council, leading to its legitimacy being questioned. The Unity Government dissolved on 17 June 2015 after President Abbas said it was unable to operate in the Gaza Strip.

Before the agreement, there were two separate governments, one ruled by Fatah in the West Bank and the other by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Although this unity government formally was a government representing both Fatah and Hamas, the two parties remained hostile to each other as numerous reconciliation attempts have failed so far.

The president of the State of Palestine (Arabic: رئيس دولة فلسطين, romanized: Raʼīs Dawlat Filasṭīn) is the head of state of Palestine. Yasser Arafat became the first titular president of the State of Palestine in 1989, one year after the Palestinian Declaration of Independence. The title was originally titular, in parallel with the de facto title president of the Palestinian National Authority. Both functions were held by Arafat from 1994 and continued until his death in November 2004, and were continued by his successor Mahmoud Abbas. In January 2005, the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) asked Abbas to perform the duties of the president of the State of Palestine. In November 2008, the PCC approved the continuation of Abbas's function as president of the State of Palestine. Since 2013, the title president of the State of Palestine became the sole title of the Palestinian president.

The Sharm El Sheikh Summit of 2005 was a high-profile diplomatic meeting between Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian National Authority. Hosted in the Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh on 8 February 2005, it was organized in an effort to end the Second Intifada, which had resulted in the deaths of over 3,000 Palestinians and over 1,000 Israelis since it began in September 2000. The four leaders in attendance were Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, Jordanian king Abdullah II, and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas had recently succeeded Yasser Arafat, who died in November 2004, as the President of the Palestinian National Authority.

Sharon and Abbas explicitly undertook to cease all violence against each other's peoples and affirmed their commitment to the roadmap for peace, which had been proposed by the Middle East Quartet. Sharon also agreed to release 900 of the 7,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody at the time, and to withdraw from occupied West Bank towns.