‘Missing in action’: Where has Palestinian Authority been since October 7?

A year of Israel’s war has only intensified Palestinians’ deep-seated disillusion with their political leadership.

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas was in his element when, on stage at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) last month, he thanked 124 countries for voting yes on the first-ever resolution introduced by Palestine at the UNGA.

He was back at the scene of one of the PA’s most significant political achievements since its establishment under the Oslo Accords in the mid-1990s – Palestine’s successful 2012 bid for non-member observer status.

Abbas, an architect of the peace process that created the PA as a government-in-waiting until the establishment of a Palestinian state, succeeded Yasser Arafat at the helm of the PA after his death. Since then, the PA has made international recognition and diplomacy a priority, with constant calls for UN action and a years-long campaign for the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes committed in Palestine.

At the UNGA, Abbas condemned Israel’s yearlong war on Gaza, ongoing incursions and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.