Al-Hamadallah, a linguistics professor of Nablus’ Al-Najah University, was assigned by Abbas at a meeting at his headquarters in Ramallah Sunday to form a new government, adding that Al-Hamdallah accepted the designation.

“President Abbas has asked me to form a new government and I have accepted,” Hamdallah, 54, a member of Abbas’s Fatah party who has also headed the Palestinian Stock Exchange, told the AFP news agency.

“The government will be formed in the coming days. Most ministers of the outgoing government will stay and I will bring in a new finance minister,” he added.

This move follows the resignation of former government’s Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in April after months of tension with Abbas.

Hamdallah, received a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Lancaster in the United Kingdom and has been president of An-Najah University since 1998. He has also served as the secretary general of the  central elections commission since 2002.

In the wake of Fayyad’s resignation, Haaretz reported the leading candidates to replace him were Hamdallah and Mohammad Mustafa, head of the national investment fund but according to sources close to Abbas told Haaretz Sunday night that Mustafa would probably be appointed Hamdallah’s deputy.

Hamdallah’s appointment comes as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last week urged Israelis and Palestinians to renew peace negotiations.

Fayyad offered his resignation on Thursday, but Abbas did not respond to Fayyad’s offer until Saturday.

Fayyad’s resignation is thought to be a blow to the US government as he was expected to play a key role in U.S. efforts to revive peace talks, according to the Associated Press.

Abbas tasked Fayyad with the role of caretaker for the current government until a new prime minister is appointed, an official told WAFA news agency on the condition of anonymity.

Abbas and Fayyad had been at odds over the extent of the prime minister’s authority. But the conflict between the two reached its peak last month over the resignation of Fayyad’s finance minister, Nabil Kassis.

Fayyad accepted the resignation, but Abbas then overruled the prime minister.

Fayyad , 60, has served since mid-2007 as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority.

According to sources Fayyad in recent days had told close friends that he was determined to leave. The prime minister also complained about what he said was an attempt by leading Fatah members to undermine him.

Last week, for the first time, the Fatah’s Revolutionary Council openly criticized Fayyad’s government over its economic policy, according to AFP.

Recently, he US has unblocked almost $500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority as it faces its worst economic crisis in years.

The move comes months after Congress froze Palestinian aid in response to its bid for non-member observer status at the UN.

The news came after US President Barack Obama met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a visit to Israel and the West Bank in what was his first trip to the region since taking office in 2009.

The Palestinian Authority’s current economic crisis is largely due to absence of promised aid.

According to Maan news agency Kerry offered President Mahmoud Abbas incentives to return to direct negotiations with Israel.

Kerry offered to release all Palestinian funds and to ensure Israel does not withhold Palestinian tax revenue in the future, and to extend the Palestinian Authority’s jurisdiction, particularly in Area C , according to Maan.

The 60 percent of the West Bank under exclusive Israeli control.

According to AFP, Abbas seeks a return to direct talks, but demanded that Israel must stop illegal settlement building and release Palestinian prisoners.

The last round of direct negotiations collapsed in late 2010.

Kerry is on a 10-day tour, met with Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul before meeting with Abbas.

“Turkey can be a key, an important contribution to the process of peace in so many ways,” Kerry told reporters in a joint press conference.

Meanwhile, a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip on Sunday. The rocket crashed into southern Israel as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leader.

Following the incident, Israel’s army closed a goods crossing into the Gaza Strip on Monday.Kerry is to hold separate talks on Monday with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli President Shimon Peres. On Tuesday he meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Officials say the majority of the group’s Shura council members voted for him.

Mashaal had previously indicated he would not seek another term, but officials told Maan news agency that Arab and Palestinian figures asked him to seek the top spot once again.

The 56-year-old has headed the political bureau of Hamas since 1996.

His re-election could revive stalled reconciliation efforts between Hamas and political rival Mahmoud Abbas, AP says.

Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in 2007, leaving Abbas with a self-rule government, the Palestinian Authority, in parts of the West Bank. Both sides have become entrenched in their territories, hampering reconciliation.

Meshaal, set foot in Gaza for the first time in December since leaving the West Bank in 1967.

Meshaal ran the group from exile in Damascus from 2004 a few months before he left the Syrian capital because of unrest in Syria and to avoid pressure from Syrian authorities to side himself with President bashar al-Assad, according to sources. He now divides his time between Qatar and Cairo.

Hamas continues with its view that it will not recognize the Jewish state officially, and it is viewed as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and most Western governments.

“In our endeavour, we do not seek to delegitimize an existing State, that is Israel, but rather to assert the State that must be realized, that is Palestine,” he told world leaders on the third day of the Assembly’s annual General Debate , calling on the Security Council to urgently adopt a “binding reference” for achieving the two-state solution.

“Despite all the complexities of the prevailing reality and all the frustrations that abound, we say before the international community: there is still a chance – maybe the last – to save the two-state solution and to salvage peace,” he said, reciting a long list of actions, including Israeli settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory.

Such actions negated the possibility of the internationally-endorsed two-state solution which envisages Palestine and Israeli living side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders, President Abbas stressed.

There can only be one understanding of Israel’s actions, the Palestinian leader said, adding: “That one understanding leads to one conclusion: that the Israeli Government rejects the two-State solution.” Israel has said it is prepared to discuss all matters with the Palestinians without pre-conditions.

Among the actions the Palestinian leader cited were 535 attacks perpetrated by “terrorist militias” of settlers, which he called a by-product of the “racist climate fuelled by a culture of incitement in the Israeli curriculum and extremist declarations, which are rife with hatred and are rooted in a series of discriminatory laws created and enacted over the years against the Palestinian people.”

He added that Israel has carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem by demolishing Palestinian homes, preventing construction and revoking residency rights and has continued to build and expand settlements throughout the West Bank while suffocating Gaza with a blockade and attacks.

Moreover, he noted, Israel’s continued occupation of East Jerusalem, its de facto annexation of large areas of the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, its refusal to engage in any serious discussion on Palestinian refugees, and its other actions on the ground would leave only small Palestinian enclaves surrounded by large Israeli settlement blocs, walls, checkpoints and vast security zones and roads devoted to the settlers.

The core components of a just solution to the conflict entail the establishment of an independent Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, over all the territory occupied by Israel since 1967, and a just solution to the Palestine refugee issue, President Abbas said.

As to the new status he is seeking, President Abbas said the Palestinians had already begun intensive consultations with various regional organizations and Member States for the General Assembly to adopt a resolution considering the State of Palestine as a non-Member State during this session.

“We are confident that the vast majority of the countries of the world support our endeavour aimed at salvaging the chances for a just peace,” he added.

“We will go to the UN General Assembly for consultations with our friends on the draft resolution calling for the upgrade of Palestine (to non-member status)” in the United Nations, Mr Abbas said in a televised speech in Ramallah.

“We are going to the UN to say that we are a state which applies the fourth Geneva convention. There are 133 countries that recognise us as a state with east Jerusalem as its capital and where we have embassies raising the Palestinian flag.”

The Palestinians are currently a UN observer “entity” with no voting rights. PA minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al- Malki told reporters last month that Mahmoud Abbas will ask for non-member observer status at the U.N General Assembly in his speech in late September, an upgrade they expect to establish the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, as Palestinian territories.

A simple majority vote in the 193-member General Assembly would be enough to grant Palestinians non-member observer status, bypassing the Security Council where the United States, Israel’s ally, has previously threatened to veto the bid.

The United States and Israel argue that a Palestinian state can only be established in negotiations with Israel. However, Israeli-Palestinian have been stalled since 2008.

A few weeks ago,Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee member, Saleh Raafat, said Washington was pressuring the Palestinian leadership to postpone its upgrade plans until after the US elections in November.

Meanwhile, Abbas held the Hamas Islamist group ruling Gaza responsible for the failure of national reconciliation efforts during his speech.  “Reconciliation means elections, and wanting to establish an independent emirate in Gaza is not going to work,” Abbas said.

He added that those who dealt with Haniyeh as a prime minister were deepening divisions among the Palestinians, the PA president said. “Ismail Haniyeh is not the prime minister,” he said, referring to Haniyeh’s visit to Mohamed Mursi in Cairo.

During his speech Abbas also said that government employees would not receive full salaries in October because donor countries have not delivered promised aid they have promised, leaving the Palestinian Authority that governs much of the West Bank in a budgetary shortfall that has contributed to rising prices and delays in the payment of government salaries, according to Haaretz. The economic situation has sparked demonstrations in the West Bank.

Abbas will address the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 27, and then file the application for observer state recognition with the world body, said Malki, according to Reuters.

“The application will be deposited and then we will be in touch with the members of the General Assembly, consulting with them on the proper timing for applying,” the minister added.

The Palestinians are currently a UN observer “entity” with no voting rights. Malki told reporters that Mahmoud Abbas will ask for non-member observer status at the U.N General Assembly in his speech in late September, an upgrade they hope will firmly establish the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967, as Palestinian territories.

Separately, Ron Prosor,Israel’s UN envoy, told local radio stations that Palestinian Authority will likely receive non-member observer status, but says: ‘Nothing will change on the ground’.

The Palestinian bid to upgrade their status at the United Nations would find majority support but would not bring them closer to statehood and peace with Israel, he added.

A simple majority vote in the 193-member General Assembly would be enough to grant Palestinians non-member observer status, bypassing the Security Council  where the United States, Israel’s ally, has previously threatened to veto the bid.

The United States and Israel argue that a Palestinian state can only be established in negotiations with Israel. However, Israeli-Palestinian have been stalled since 2008. A Palestinian bid last year for full U.N. membership lost ground in the U.N. Security Council because of lack of support.

Malki’s remarks came after a meeting by the Arab League follow-up committee in Doha on Sunday, at which representatives expressed support for the bid but did not set a date for it, according to Maan News.

The minister said officials would communicate with member countries of the General Assembly and report back to the committee at its next meeting in Cairo on Sept. 5, when the timing of the appeal will be decided, according to Maan news.

“The decision is that the Palestinian leadership will go to the general assembly despite the consequences,” he said.

Last year, Abbas formally presented a Palestinian request for full state membership at the UN in a move which infuriated Israel and the United States.

The request was stalled at the Security Council, whose 15 members were divided over the move, and where the United States had threatened to use its veto to block the bid.

Direct peace talks have been frozen since 2010, as Illegal settlements have been the major obstacle to all negotiations as Israel refused Palestinians’ demands to stop construction of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem despite settlements being illegal under the fourth Geneva convention and being in defiance of UN resolutions.

The United States has threatened to withold funding from any UN body that recognizes the PA as a full member state.The US is demanding that the Palestinian Authority resumes talks without pre-conditions.

Washington underwrites 23% of the United Nation’s annual budget, and 27% of the world body’s peace-keeping operations, according to AFP.

The call for an international peace conference came in response to Russian President Vladmir Putin’s visit to Israel and the West Bank on Tuesday as part of a tour to the Middle East, according to Maan news agency.

Russia’s administration has lost some credibility in the region as a result of its support of the Assad regime in Syria. It now hopes to re-establish its reputation by brokering a regional peace conference.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Putin in Bethlehem to discuss a host of concerns, according to Maan News Agency.

Among the top issues in the meeting was the role Russia could play in mediating peace talks between Israel and Palestine.

The majority of the Jerusalem meeting centered on Israel’s fear of a potential Iranian nuclear weapon, despite no evidence for the existence of such a weapon, according to Haaretz.

After meeting with Putin in the presidential headquarters, Abbas said he assured the Russian leader that “negotiations are the only way to achieve peace between us and Israel.”

He stressed the leadership’s position that they cannot enter peace talks while Israel continues to expand settlements on Palestinian land.

Abbas asked Putin for help securing the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, especially those detained before 1994. “We already agreed with Israel that they should be released, but that has not been put into effect yet.” he said, according to PNN.

The leaders also discussed the reconciliation process between Abbas’ Fatah party and rivals Hamas.

The presidents also talked about the Arab Spring and bilateral relations between Russia and Palestine.

Khaled Meshaal told journalists in Cairo that he had the same opinion with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and with Arab League chief Nabeel Al Arabi over the hunger stike issue and were in  ”full coordination.”

Al-Arabi has denounced Israeli detention policies as being inhumane and in violation of human rights.

Approximately 1,200 Palestinian prisoners began an open hunger strike on 17 April, with the campaign gaining further momentum over this past week and additional prisoners joining daily, according to Addameer support and human rights association.

Addameer estimates that the current number of prisoners engaged in open hunger strike is around 2,000. This number includes the 19 prisoners currently held in isolation for “security reasons.” Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who has been held in isolation for over three years, reported on 23 April that since the beginning of his hunger strike on 17 April, he had already lost 6 kg.

According to Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and prisoner advocacy groups, there are currently over 6,000 Palestinian prisoners, including legislators, in Israeli jails, many of whom have been rounded up without charge or trial.

Palestinian sources reported, Sunday, that detained secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ahmad Sa’adat, was moved to the Ramla prison hospital after the deterioration of his health condition.

The Quds Net News Agency reported that detainees of the PFLP rejected an Israeli offer to end their hunger-strike in exchange for removing Sa’adat from solitary confinement, and stated that Israel must stop all of its violations, and put an end to its illegal solitary confinement policies.