Palestinian Authority & Gaza Strip

Coronavirus lockdowns have made it difficult to export its hand-crafted Christmas gifts from Gaza to Europe and to Bethlehem.

WHO delivers 15 ventilators, paid for by Kuwait, to Gaza Strip hospitals one week after local and international public health advisers said hospitals in the enclave could soon become overwhelmed. Gaza has logged nearly 20,000 coronavirus cases and 97 deaths, mostly since August, amid concern of a wider outbreak in the densely populated enclave of 2 million people.

UN Conference on Trade and Development says the maritime blockade Israel imposed in 2007 after Hamas usurped control of the coastal enclave has cost Gaza $16.7 billion in economic losses. Foreign Ministry accused UNCTAD of presenting a “one-sided and distorted depiction” that disregards ”terrorist organizations' control over the Gaza Strip and their responsibility for what occurs in the Gaza Strip."

In its report, the World Bank says unemployment in the West Bank is at 18.2% and 48.5% in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Seventy-nine of Gaza's 100 ventilators have been taken up by COVID-19 patients, said Abdelraouf Elmanama, a microbiologist who is part of the enclave's pandemic task force.

PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh says the decision to resume cooperation with Israel is based in part on confronting the health crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Fathi Hammad tests positive for the coronavirus on Friday and is put into quarantine. In July, Hammad said: "We must attack every Jew on planet Earth and slaughter and kill them."

Tributes pour in from former Israeli and American diplomats after Erekat passes away from complications related to the coronavirus at Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center, Tuesday. PA President Mahmoud Abbas laments Erakat's death as "a great loss for Palestine and our people."

Israel so far has collected NIS 2.5 billion for the Palestinian Authority, which is used to fund all civil servants and West Bank officials.

Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, the head of the Palestinian Islamic Supreme Council, announced that Muslims everywhere “denounce the offensive drawings of the prophet Muhammad and will express their forceful rejection of these uncivilized transgressions.”