Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared Saturday that elections for the Palestinian National Council — an internal body of the Palestine Liberation Organization — will be held by the end of 2025.

The announcement came as Abbas’s Palestinian Authority — the recognized government of parts of the West Bank, created through Israel’s Oslo Accords with the PLO — seeks to bolster its legitimacy in the eyes of the international community.

The PA seeks to replace the Hamas terror group as the governing authority in the Gaza Strip at the end of the ongoing war there — an idea that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected.

The Palestinian National Council formally sets the policy of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and elects a smaller forum that in turn elects PLO leaders. It is a separate body from the Palestinian Legislative Council, which is the Palestinian Authority parliament.

Elections for the PLC have not been held since 2006, when Palestinians elected a parliament dominated by Hamas. That vote was followed by a brief civil war between the two factions, which ended with Hamas expelling Fatah from Gaza.

Since then, Abbas has repeatedly declared an intention to hold elections, but none have come to pass. Most recently, in 2021, Abbas declared plans for both a PLC election and a presidential election, but called both off, blaming Israel for not allowing East Jerusalem residents to participate.

According to Abbas’s declaration, which was publicized by the PA’s official WAFA news agency, the council will still be composed of 350 members; two-thirds of them will be “from the homeland” while the other third will be from the Palestinian diaspora.

The term “homeland” presumably refers to the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. It was not immediately clear whether or how the residents of war-torn Gaza could participate in the process; nor was the potential role of East Jerusalem residents clear.

To be a member of the PNC, would-be legislators will have to commit themselves to the PLO program and the international resolutions surrounding it, the declaration said.

The PLO Executive Committee will call for the formation of a preparatory committee tasked with making arrangements for the election, and the plans will be presented to Abbas within two weeks, it added.

The Palestinian Authority has been under pressure from Arab and Western states to undergo significant reform as they push for the body to replace Hamas as Gaza’s governing authority.

Last month, PA President Abbas condemned Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror attack for the first time, while reiterating his call for the terror group to release the remaining hostages in Gaza.

The PA has also reformed its so-called “pay-to-slay” system, under which the families of Palestinians killed or convicted for committing terror attacks against Israelis, as well as other security prisoners, were paid stipends based on the length of their prison sentence.