JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s defense minister has held talks with the Palestinian president in the first high-level meeting between the two sides in years. The talks took place in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Sunday’s meeting between Benny Gantz and Mahmoud Abbas signaled a possible shift after the near-complete breakdown in communication between Abbas and Israeli leaders in recent years. That rift had opened under former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line policy toward the Palestinians, backed by former President Donald Trump. Both countries have new leaders in place. President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met in Washington last week.
Abbas, Israel’s Gantz hold new high-level talks, urged by US
