Palestinian leaders are seriously considering a major shift in strategy that will include attempting to add key countries as international sponsors of the peace process. Serious considerations will be given to the relationship between Palestine and Israel that was set up during the two-decades-old Oslo process.

In an interview with the London-based Al-Hayat daily Dec. 25, senior Fatah leader Azzam al-Ahmad said that the Palestinian Central Council (PCC) will meet in mid-January 2018 to declare Palestine a “state under occupation.” He said that Palestinians can’t continue with its relationship with the Israeli side while it denies “our people’s rights in a capital in Jerusalem.”

It is not clear if delegates from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad will attend the upcoming meeting. Ahmad said in his Al-Hayat interview that a request by Hamas to hold the PCC meeting in Lebanon was turned down and Ramallah was chosen as the location for the upcoming meeting.

PLO Executive Committee member Asaad Abdel Rahman told Al-Monitor that he plans to submit a request in the upcoming PCC meeting according to which Israeli officials responsible for the illegal settlement activities — especially in Jerusalem — should be put on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC). “All the legal paperwork is ready, and we should be able to declare the names of the Israeli criminals that must be tried for war crimes,” he said.