Overview
- Fatah opened a three-day congress in Ramallah on Thursday to choose a new central committee and an 80-member revolutionary council.
- Hours after the Thursday opening, the official Wafa agency said Mahmoud Abbas was unanimously returned as party leader.
- Abbas, 90, told delegates he is preparing legislative and presidential elections but provided no timetable and spoke of reforms.
- Roughly 2,580 participants are taking part in person and online, with delegates joining from Gaza, Cairo and Beirut and a portion of the central committee vote planned at Gaza City's al-Azhar University.
- The gathering highlights internal strains, with some senior figures boycotting and would-be successors such as Jibril Rajoub, Hussein al‑Cheikh and Abbas’s son Yasser vying for influence.