RAMALLAH, Minister Hussein al-Sheikh, the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority’s Civil Affairs Commission, said today the citizenship status of 661 Palestinians living in the occupied Palestinian Territory have been approved by the Israeli occupation authorities.

Under agreements signed between the Palestinians and Israeli occupation, Israel maintains a social registry of the Palestinian population in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

This means children born outside the occupied Palestinian Territory to Palestinian parents holding the Palestinian Authority passport should be registered before a certain age to be entitled to citizenship status inside areas under PA jurisdiction. It also means those wishing to change address between the West Bank and Gaza and vice versa have to get prior approval from Israel.

“These approvals came in accordance with the understandings that were made between us and the Israeli side, according to which this issue was brought to surface again. It was recently agreed between the two sides to settle the status of 10,000 Palestinian citizens, including approvals of new identity cards and a change of address,” said al-Sheikh in a press statement.

He said work is underway to get approvals for other names that had been referred to the Israeli side, including approvals for citizenship status and change of address.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency