Event · Diplomacy25 January 2006

The 2006 legislative elections

الانتخابات التشريعية الفلسطينية 2006

Exact day25 January 2006

Gaza Strip · West Bank

On 25 January 2006 Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip elected their Legislative Council, and Hamas’s Change and Reform list won 74 of its 132 seats. Israel and the Quartet refused to deal with the government Hamas formed, and the rift that followed divided Gaza from the West Bank.

Connected people & places

The vote

Hamas decided in 2005 to contest the Legislative Council elections. Its Change and Reform list, led by Ismail Haniyeh, won the elections held on 25 January 2006, with 74 of the 132 seats. On 22 February President Mahmoud Abbas tasked Haniyeh with forming a new government.

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Chapter evidence

  1. Ismail Haniyeh ↗

    PalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies · section: Biography

    Editorial paraphrase · en

    Change and Reform, led by Haniyeh, won the elections of 25 January 2006 with 74 of 132 seats; on 22 February Abbas tasked him with forming a government.

    Link to this citation

What followed

Israel and the Quartet, the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, refused to deal with the Hamas government until it recognised Israel, accepted the agreements the PLO had signed and renounced violence, and donors channelled funds around it. Clashes between Hamas and Fatah alternated with unity talks until, in June 2007, all-out fighting left two separate Palestinian governments, in Gaza and in the West Bank.

Link to this chapter

Chapter evidence

  1. XII. Gaza Strip Separated and Assaulted ↗

    PalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies · section: Highlight text (Michael Fischbach)

    Editorial paraphrase · en

    Israel and the Quartet refused to deal with the Hamas government on three conditions; clashes and unity talks until the fighting of June 2007 and two separate governments.

    Link to this citation

Sources & evidence

Every trace has a source.

Contextual sources are further reading. Precise supporting passages appear alongside the chapters.

article · PalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies

Ismail Haniyeh

Biography, Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question (Institute for Palestine Studies).

Published: date not recordedConsulted: 2026-09-28

Reference metadata and an original summary only. No permission to copy or host the source’s text, photographs, audio or video is asserted.

article · PalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies

XII. Gaza Strip Separated and Assaulted

Overview of 2006–2017 by Michael Fischbach, Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question (Institute for Palestine Studies).

Published: date not recordedConsulted: 2026-09-28

Reference metadata and an original summary only. No permission to copy or host the source’s text, photographs, audio or video is asserted.

Dates & remembrance

25 January 2006 · day

01-25 · occurrence
Anniversary of the documented date.

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