Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh expressed his sadness over the news that Arab countries are holding talks to open embassies in Israel, while Hamas called on Saudi Arabia to clarify the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited it.
In the first comment from the Palestinian Authority on the news about a secret visit by Netanyahu to Saudi Arabia and his meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Shtayyeh said that portraying normalization with Arab countries as an alternative to peace with the Palestinians is an escape from the truth.
He said that he renewed the Palestinian President's call for an Arab-Arab dialogue on what is happening, and coordination with the Palestinian leadership.
For his part, the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Sami Abu Zuhri considered that the information circulating - if correct - regarding the secret visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Saudi Arabia is dangerous.
In his tweet on Twitter, Abu Zuhri called on the Saudi authorities to clarify what happened, "as this represents an insult to the nation and a waste of Palestinian rights," he said.
Israeli media revealed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, accompanied by Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, on Sunday, during a secret visit to Saudi Arabia.
The Israeli official radio confirmed the validity of the meeting between Netanyahu and Cohen, the Saudi Crown Prince.
The information about # Netanyahu's visit to Saudi Arabia is dangerous - if correct -, and
we call on Saudi Arabia to clarify what happened because of what this represents as an insult to the nation and a waste of Palestinian rights. # Normalization_ is a betrayal.
DR.
SAMI ABU ZUHRI (@SamiZuhri) November 23, 2020
The correspondent of the official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that the military censorship allowed the news of Netanyahu and Cohen's visit to Saudi Arabia to be broadcast.
No official confirmation has yet been issued from Riyadh regarding this news.
The director of the Al-Jazeera office in Palestine, Walid Al-Omari, indicated that it is clear that this news is true, because the Israeli censorship allowed it to be published, and because the same plane was used repeatedly by Netanyahu on secret and overt missions, explaining that the Israeli radio reported the news from a senior government official whose name was not mentioned, and usually What is likely to be leaked is Netanyahu himself, according to the Al Jazeera bureau chief.
He said that Israeli media published the details of what happened during the last hour, and that it also revealed that Netanyahu and Cohen went to Saudi Arabia and their meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman were the real reason for postponing the emergency meeting of the Corona Ministerial Emergency Committee, despite the excuses that were announced as a reason for the delay.
Several Israeli media outlets published identical details about the meeting.
The Saudi ambassador to the United Nations, Abdullah Al-Muallimi, expressed in yesterday's statements Riyadh’s readiness to normalize relations with Tel Aviv if Israel recognized the establishment of the Palestinian state and an end to the occupation.