Abbas Delays Palestinian Elections to 2027, and Israel and Hamas Both Respond

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday cancelled the legislative elections set for 28 November and ordered presidential and legislative votes together on 11 September 2027, according to a decree carried by the official news agency WAFA. Within hours Israel’s foreign minister called him a “corrupt dictator” on X, and Hamas called the delay “a step in the right direction”.

The decree blames Israeli measures. Gideon Sa’ar says that is a lie. Hamas, which won the last legislative vote in January 2006, welcomed the delay, and Paris, which tied its recognition of a Palestinian state to an election, says elections remain essential.

The decree cites Israeli raids, settlement expansion and withheld tax revenue, and Gaza’s conditions. Sa’ar rejected that account within hours. Hamas welcomed the delay and asked for a national dialogue. France said elections remain essential. Israel holds its own election on 27 October.

WAFA’s text of the decree, as relayed by JNS, revokes the earlier order for a 28 November legislative vote and sets 11 September 2027. It says the move follows a decision of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee and consultations with the factions. The stated grounds are “continued Israeli military attacks, settlement expansion, colonist violence and repeated Israeli incursions across the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem”. For Gaza, The Times of Israel reported, the text points to “exceptional security and humanitarian conditions”, an incomplete Israeli withdrawal and stalled reconstruction.

The decision had been agreed days earlier. Two Palestinian officials told Reuters that Fatah and Hamas leaders agreed at a Cairo meeting on Wednesday to postpone. Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh wrote to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot that holding the vote “faces fundamental obstacles affecting their inclusiveness”, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Sa’ar answered in two steps. On Friday he accused Abbas of “fooling the international community”, Al Jazeera reported. After the decree, he wrote on X that Abbas is “the Palestinian corrupt dictator, who has not held elections in over twenty years”, and called the claim of Israeli obstruction “a ridiculous lie designed to evade responsibility and accountability”, according to The Times of Israel.

Hamas replied in a statement carried by Arab 48 at 23:32 local time. In Arabic, in Silent Dossier’s translation, it said the decision to postpone “is a step in the right direction that must lead to a comprehensive, serious and fruitful national dialogue”. It said it was ready to join a dialogue on rebuilding the National Council and the Legislative Council.

France’s foreign ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said the elections were essential and welcomed an EU observer mission, The Times of Israel reported. Paris had urged the vote as part of its September 2025 recognition of a Palestinian state, and the same report says Abbas gave Emmanuel Macron and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman a written commitment to hold it.

Palestinian critics spoke too. Al-Monitor quoted Mohammed Dahlan, who leads a Fatah splinter group from the United Arab Emirates, calling the delay a “crime against democracy”, and the journalist Esmat Mansour saying “the only thing that could explain this delay is your fear of elections”. Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Al Jazeera that “everything is concentrated in the hands of the executive authority” and that there is “no independent judiciary, no parliament”.

The decree lists Israeli raids, settlements and withheld revenue. Sa’ar’s post lists none of them and counts the years without a vote. Haaretz found Israel was withholding nearly $5 billion in Palestinian tax revenue as of May, the Jerusalem Post noted. The Times of Israel notes that Abbas has ruled by decree since his mandate expired in 2009 and that Fatah is widely expected to do poorly in any competitive vote.

Ghassan al-Khatib, an analyst and former Palestinian Authority minister, told Al-Monitor that Israel is creating conditions “not conducive to elections” and that internal Palestinian politics are not the main reason. In the same report Mansour says the reverse.

Hamas won in 2006 and has now welcomed a delay. Its statement asks for a dialogue on the National Council and the Legislative Council, and the Cairo meeting on Wednesday was where Fatah and Hamas leaders agreed to postpone.

Sa’ar’s post came 17 days before Israel’s own election on 27 October. The Palestinian date falls nearly eleven months after it.

Israel votes on 27 October. The decree promises a national dialogue to strengthen Palestinian unity, and Hamas has said it will join one, so the first meeting date is the next marker. France has welcomed an EU observer mission, and the question for Paris is whether it keeps pressing for 11 September 2027. The test of the decree is a published election calendar with registration dates and a ruling on voting in East Jerusalem. Until one appears, Dahlan’s “crime against democracy” and al-Khatib’s “not conducive to elections” are the two readings on the record.