The head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to put pressure on Israel.

To prevent disrupting the upcoming legislative elections in occupied Jerusalem, at a time when an Israeli official threatened to stop security coordination with the Palestinian Authority if Hamas won those elections.

Hamas said - in a statement issued on Thursday - that Haniyeh made a phone call with President Erdogan, during which he reviewed the latest developments related to the Palestinian political reality, especially with regard to developments in the electoral process and the completion of the submission of the lists to the Central Elections Committee.

According to the statement, Haniyeh called on the Turkish president "to put pressure on the occupation not to disrupt the electoral process in Jerusalem or interfere in its course," and also asked him to participate in the process of monitoring it.

The head of the movement’s political bureau stressed that "Jerusalem is a major part in the elections, both running and being elected."

Haniyeh affirmed "Hamas's firm stance to move forward with the election path to end the division, achieve unity, and build the Palestinian political system on the basis of partnership and democracy."

According to a Palestinian presidential decree, the legislative elections will be held on May 22, the presidential elections will be July 31, and the National Council will be held on August 31 of this year.

The Palestinian Central Elections Commission closed - at dawn on Thursday - the door to running for the legislative elections, 12 days after the start of receiving these requests.

According to the committee, it has submitted 36 lists of applications to run in the Palestinian legislative elections.

A threat

In a related context, the coordinator of the activities of the Israeli government in the occupied Palestinian territories, Kamal Abu Rukn, threatened to stop security coordination with the Palestinian Authority if Hamas won the upcoming legislative elections.

The official Israeli Kan channel quoted Abu Rukn as saying that "Israel will stop relations and security coordination with the Palestinian Authority if the (Hamas) movement wins the legislative elections," adding that going to the Palestinian legislative elections is a "big mistake."

36 lists submitted applications to run in the Palestinian legislative elections, according to what the Central Elections Commission announced (Al-Jazeera)

Abu Rukn added that there is a "very high probability" that Hamas will win these elections, and said, "I advise the political leadership in Israel not to allow the elections to be held in Jerusalem."

It was not immediately possible to obtain comment from the Palestinian Authority regarding the Israeli official's comments.

Despite the end of the process of registering the lists of candidates in the Palestinian legislative elections, there is talk about the possibility of postponing or canceling them as a result of Israeli, regional and international pressures.

And last week, the Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee, Jibril Rajoub, admitted - in an interview on Palestine TV - that there were "even regional and Arab" pressures to cancel the elections, and said that President Mahmoud Abbas rejected them.

The last Palestinian elections for the Legislative Council (Parliament) were held in early 2006, and resulted in the Hamas movement winning a majority, a year earlier, in presidential elections, in which President Mahmoud Abbas won.