Country · PS
Palestine
فلسطين פלסטין7 parties on file · 2 currently in government
Timeline · 11 events
Region timeline →-
Barghouti consistently leads PA presidential polling
Imprisoned Fatah figure Marwan Barghouti consistently leads PA presidential polling — when included — by wide margins. His name regularly appears in Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swap discussions; releasing him is widely seen as a meaningful possibility post-war.
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Gaza ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal takes effect
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas-led factions in Gaza took effect on 19 January 2025, in three 42-day phases mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar. The first phase had Hamas release 33 Israeli hostages while Israel freed roughly 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, allowed an aid surge, and began a phased withdrawal. Israel''s cabinet approved the deal on 17 January 2025.
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Yahya Sinwar killed in Rafah
Hamas leader and architect of the 7 October attacks killed in a chance encounter with an Israeli infantry patrol in Tel al-Sultan, Rafah. The killing was confirmed by DNA matching the following day; Israel publicly identified him within 24 hours.
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Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Tehran
Hamas political bureau chief killed by a guided projectile at a Revolutionary Guard guesthouse in Tehran, hours after attending the inauguration of Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel did not officially claim responsibility; widely attributed.
Show 7 earlier events (2004–2023)
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7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel
Hamas-led infiltration through the Gaza border fence. ~1,200 Israelis killed, ~240 hostages taken. Triggered the subsequent Israeli ground operation in Gaza, the longest and deadliest in the Strip's history.
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Sheikh Jarrah crisis and the May 2021 Gaza war
11-day Israel–Hamas war triggered by clashes over Sheikh Jarrah evictions and Al-Aqsa Mosque police raids during Ramadan. ~250 Palestinians killed, ~13 Israelis killed. First major Israel–Hamas escalation since 2014.
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Operation Protective Edge begins
51-day war between Israel and Hamas. ~2,200 Palestinians killed (UN), ~73 Israelis killed. Triggered by the Hamas kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens followed by escalation cycle.
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Operation Cast Lead begins
Israeli air operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip — the first of the post-2007 series of large Israel–Hamas military confrontations. Twenty-two days of operations, ~1,400 Palestinians killed, ~13 Israelis killed.
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Battle of Gaza: Hamas takes over
After the 2006 Palestinian legislative election won by Hamas and the breakdown of the unity government, Hamas defeated Fatah forces in Gaza in a week-long armed conflict ending 2007-06-15. Created the Gaza/West Bank political split that persists today: Hamas governs Gaza, Fatah governs the West Bank under occupation.
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Hamas wins Palestinian Legislative Council election
Hamas takes 74 of 132 seats in the PLC election, ending decades of Fatah dominance and precipitating the Western boycott of the PA government. The Battle of Gaza eighteen months later was the direct sequel.
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Yasser Arafat dies in Paris
Arafat dies at the Percy military hospital outside Paris after weeks of declining health. His death ends 35 years of Fatah leadership and ushers in Mahmoud Abbas as PA president after a January 2005 election.
Marquee bills
All bills →Compass · Palestine
Country mean — Economic -4.4, Social -0.1
Ringed dots are parties currently in government. See the full regional compass · hand-coded estimates; methodology.
Current leadership · grouped by party
12 political figures across 4 groups. Coalition parties first, then opposition, then unaffiliated.
Independents / unaffiliated
Parties
- DFLP الجبهة الديمقراطية لتحرير فلسطين
Led by · Nayef Hawatmeh
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist-Leninist party that split from the PFLP in 1969 under Nayef Hawatmeh.
- Fatah حركة فتح
Led by · Mahmoud Abbas
Secular-nationalist party founded by Yasser Arafat, dominant within the PLO and the Palestinian Authority.
- Hamas حركة المقاومة الإسلامية
Led by · leadership in flux post-2024
Islamist political and militant movement, governing Gaza since 2007.
- Mubadara المبادرة الوطنية الفلسطينية
Led by · Mustafa Barghouti
Palestinian National Initiative, a centrist civic-state movement founded by Mustafa Barghouti.
- Palestinian Islamic Jihad حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين
Led by · Ziyad al-Nakhalah
Smaller Islamist militant movement, more uncompromising than Hamas on negotiations with Israel.
- Palestinian People's Party حزب الشعب الفلسطيني
Led by · Bassam Salhi
Successor to the Palestinian Communist Party.
- PFLP الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
Led by · Ahmad Saadat (imprisoned)
Marxist-Leninist Palestinian nationalist party founded by George Habash.
Source documents · 32
All docs →- Mahmoud Abbas — 80th UNGA Statement, 25 September 2025 — Hamas rejection, Trump-Saudi-France peace plan endorsement, 9-point ceasefire framework 900 words
- Gaza ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal takes effect (19 Jan 2025) 74 words
- Hamas Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar killed by Israeli forces in Rafah (16 Oct 2024) 85 words
- Ziad al-Nakhalah (PIJ Secretary-General) — PROPOSED, EMPTY EXCERPT: no durable verbatim long-form located (verbatim fragments in Candidate quotes) 100 words
- Mahmoud Abbas — 79th UN General Assembly speech (22 Sep 2024) 139 words
- Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Tehran (31 Jul 2024) 65 words
Briefs from Palestine
Hand-written political-science mini-papers involving Palestine parties. 5 briefs on file.
- Fatah vs. Hamas PS The Palestinian split. Fatah's secular-nationalist PLO doctrine vs Hamas's Islamist resistance frame — the same national project across very different registers.
- Hamas vs. Freedom and Justice Party EG Brotherhood electoral vs Brotherhood armed. Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's 2011 electoral vehicle against the Palestinian Brotherhood branch that became Hamas. Same religious-political tradition, two political ecologies.
- Hamas vs. Hezbollah LB The axis of resistance, by sect. Iranian-backed Shia Islamist party-army against Muslim Brotherhood-rooted Sunni Islamist resistance movement. Allies against the same adversary, doctrinally distinct in almost every other respect.
- Hamas vs. Likud IL The headline cleavage. Israel's Jewish-nationalist mainstream right against the Palestinian Islamist resistance movement. Two parties that don't recognise the other's right to exist on the same land.
- Hamas vs. Palestinian Islamic Jihad PS Palestinian armed Islamism, by lineage. Hamas's Brotherhood roots against PIJ's Khomeinist-revolutionary doctrine. Allied in the field, doctrinally distinct in origin.
How to cite
Each record carries a retrieval date because the dataset is live — individual entries update as verification deepens. Use the per-record citation when referencing this specific profile; use the dataset citation below when referencing the project as a whole.
In-text: (Gara, 2026)
Per-record citation
APA 7Reference list · academic default
Gara, T. (2026). Palestine [Country profile]. Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/PS
Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals
Gara, Tarek. 2026. "Palestine." Country profile, Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Accessed June 21, 2026. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/PS.
BibTeXFor LaTeX / Zotero / reference managers
@misc{tayyar-country-ps,
title = {{Palestine}},
author = {Gara, Tarek},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset},
type = {Country profile},
url = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/c/PS},
urldate = {2026-06-21},
note = {First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.}
} Dataset / working-paper citation
If you're citing Tayyar as a project rather than this individual record.
APA 7Preprint
Gara, T. (2026). Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset [Preprint]. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper
BibTeXPreprint
@unpublished{tayyar-preprint,
title = {{Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset}},
author = {Gara, Tarek},
year = {2026},
type = {Preprint},
url = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper},
urldate = {2026-06-21},
note = {Living document, regenerated from the live dataset on page load.}
} First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.