In response to the decision by President Mahmoud Abbas to call for early presidential and legislative elections in a speech to the Palestinian people today, the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) stressed that the formation of a national unity government is still the most effective way towards addressing the current crisis.

The Palestinian National Initiative strongly denounced further internal violence in Gaza and the West Bank over the weekend, in which one Palestinian was killed and more than 30 injured. It urged all factions to return to the language of dialogue, and not that of bullets.