Statement issued by the Palestinian Leadership

The Palestinian Leadership held a meeting in Ramallah on 26- 8 -2014, chaired by President Mahmoud Abbas. The meeting began by reciting Al-Fatiha Sura (versus from the holy Qur'an) on the souls of heroic martyrs and innocent victims who were killed during the Israeli aggression. The leadership concluded the following:

1. The leadership stresses the need to honor the ceasefire agreement, which has put  an end the Israeli criminal aggression against our people which lasted for more than fifty-one days. At the onset of the meeting, President Abbas reiterated the need to immediately commence delivering all forms of humanitarian relief to our steadfast people in the Gaza Strip, who have been suffering from  tragedies, massive destruction and devastation. Humanitarian relief must also entail starting immediate reconstruction since several hundred thousands of people became homeless, where hundreds of schools were destroyed by the Israeli aggression, as well as the destruction of hospitals, mosques, cemeteries , residential towers and infrastructure such as electricity, water and others.
   More than two thousand martyrs and the ten thousand injured must be a strong driving force to expedite the reconstruction process which requires extraordinary efforts from all concerned Arab and international institutions.
   The leadership wishes that the lessons learnt and the consequences of this Israeli aggression promote the unified Palestinian position including the full role of the national consensus government over all of the State of Palestine.
2. The leadership emphasizes the need to implement a time bound Palestinian national plan that would lead to ending the occupation, and the International community and UN Security Council to shoulder their responsibility in this regard. The President asserted the need for an Arab and international consensus on this plan during the next phase in order to ensure the establishment of a Palestinian State that would exercise full sovereignty over its land and Jerusalem as its capital on the basis of the 1967 borders. 
   He also stressed that if the concerned parties will not comply with this plan, the Palestinian leadership will take several measures to ensure that the State of Palestine will gain further legitimacy in the international organizations.
3. The leadership urges the Palestinian people to demonstrate further unity and national cohesion, as they have shown during the days of the Israeli aggression, and to stand rmly against all conspiracies aimed at tearing the national unity, and to work together under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of our people especially in the upcoming dicult period.
4. The leadership calls for the need to pursue popular struggle against the settlement enterprise , which is still invading our country especially in Jerusalem, where Zionists continue to violate the status quo of the city particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque , in ongoing attempts at Judaizing and creating divisions.
5. The Palestinian Leadership underlines the need to continue exerting eorts towards ensuring the release of all our prisoners, including prisoners who were arrested during the recent aggression against the Gaza Strip, as well as rejecting all forms of deportations within and outside of the homeland.