Palestinian Authority & Gaza Strip

Palestinian Airlines' activity has been growing increasingly limited for years. In September, the airline offered its two remaining Fokker 50 aircraft for sale.

Gaza is run by Hamas and also home to other militant groups, including Islamic Jihad. Israeli officials believe exercise was meant as a show of force organized by Iran.

Gaza's Religious Affairs Ministry's document, dated Dec. 15, called for “activities by the directorate of preaching and spiritual guidance to limit interaction with Christmas.”

King Mohammmed assures Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that he stands by the two-state solution. Hamas and Islamic Jihad say Morocco betrayed Palestinians. "This sin does not serve the Palestinian cause," Hamas declares.

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.