The Israeli Channel 12 said tonight that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett prevented Defense Minister Benny Gantz from meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas .

According to the channel, Gantz had requested permission from Naftali Bennett in recent days to meet with President Mahmoud Abbas, but he was disappointed by the Israeli prime minister´s refusal.

Benny Gantz made it clear to the Prime Minister that if Foreign Minister Yair Lapid meets with President Abbas, this will have political repercussions that are not in Israel´s interest at the present time, according to the channel.

She noted that Gantz made it clear that he finds great importance in the fact that as defense minister he will meet with President Abbas and work to further strengthen and strengthen security cooperation.

On June 19, Gantz spoke by phone with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the first call between an Israeli minister and the Palestinian president in years, according to what was reported at the time by the Hebrew "Walla" website.

"The two spoke in a positive atmosphere and raised the need to strengthen confidence-building measures between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that would help the security and economy of the entire region," Gantz´s office said in a statement at the time.

The Palestinian president´s last public conversation with a senior Israeli official was in 2017, when he spoke with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu .

Since April 2014, negotiations between the two sides have been suspended, due to Tel Aviv´s refusal to stop settlements, release old detainees, and repudiate the two-state solution.