Palestinian President Abbas holds rare talks with Israeli minister
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Mahmoud Abbas's talks with Benny Gantz covered "all aspects" of Palestinian-Israeli relations, a Palestinian official said
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has held his first official meeting with a senior Israeli in more than a decade.
Defence Minister Benny Gantz said he travelled to Ramallah, external, in the occupied West Bank, on Sunday night to discuss security, civilian and economic issues.
He told Mr Abbas that Israel would seek to strengthen the Palestinian economy.
US President Joe Biden wants both sides to repair relations that have deteriorated since the last round of direct peace talks collapsed in 2014.
At the White House on Friday, he urged Israel's new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to take "steps to improve the lives of Palestinians and support greater economic opportunities for them".
He also reaffirmed his view that a negotiated two-state solution was the only viable path to achieving a lasting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
An Israeli government source stressed that Sunday's meeting was approved by Mr Bennett, and that Mr Gantz had not discussed peace talks with Mr Abbas.
"There is no diplomatic process with the Palestinians, nor will there be one," the source told the BBC.
On Monday afternoon Mr Gantz told Israeli media that he had offered the Palestinian Authority a $155m (£113m) loan as an advance on tax revenue collected by Israel on its behalf.
He also said Israel would recognise the status of thousands of Palestinians currently living in the West Bank without proper documentation; grant Israeli work permits to an additional 16,000 Palestinians; and issue 1,000 building permits for Palestinians in parts of the West Bank under full Israeli control.
Senior Palestinian official Hassan al-Sheikh said Sunday's discussions covered "all aspects" of Palestinian-Israeli relations, external.
The militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and fought an 11-day conflict with Israeli forces in May, warned that the meeting "deepens Palestinian political division".
Such a meeting marks a shift in formal relations.
Israel's new government is broad and includes left-wing and Arab parties likely to see building such contact as important.
But American pressure is perhaps the bigger factor. The Biden team wants a thaw in ties between Israel and the internationally-backed Palestinian leadership, which is in the middle of a financial crisis and which was shunned by Donald Trump's administration.
Palestinian officials put the emphasis on economic measures when describing the meeting, which some Palestinians will be uneasy about.
For Israel's nationalist Prime Minister Naftali Bennett there is also a dilemma, with such contacts unlikely to do much for his right-wing base.
His office is portraying it as all about security, adding that there is not and will not be a diplomatic process with the Palestinians.
The Palestinian Authority severed ties with Israel last year over then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to annex a large part of the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for a future independent state along with Gaza.
Ties were restored in November after the annexation plan was put on hold, and this June Mr Netanyahu was succeeded by Mr Bennett, a right-wing nationalist who formed a governing coalition with left-wing, centrist, Arab and other right-wing parties.
Mr Bennett, who rejects the notion of the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, has said his coalition will neither pursue annexation nor attempt to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians, external.
In a separate development on Monday, an Israeli Border Police officer who was shot by a Palestinian during a violent protest along Gaza's border with Israel nine days ago died of his wounds.
Two Palestinians - a 12-year-old boy and a 32-year-old man, identified by Hamas as a member of its armed wing - shot by Israeli troops during the clashes at the border died of their wounds last week.
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Update 17 September 2021: The article has been revised to include information that one of two Palestinians who died after being shot by Israeli forces was a Hamas militant.