A brief statement from Lapid’s office said the two men were “talking about continuing to work together and the need to ensure calm and serenity.”
Abbas congratulated Lapid on becoming prime minister, the statement said, while Lapid offered his best wishes to the Palestinian leader ahead of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim holiday that begins on Friday.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa also reported on the call, adding that President Abbas had expressed his wish that “peace and stability prevail in the region as soon as possible”.
Lapid’s predecessor, far-right Naftali Bennett, chose not to speak to Abbas during his 12-month tenure while longtime leader Benjamin Netanyahu oversaw a deterioration in Israel’s ties with the Palestinian Authority, and is reported to have last spoken with the Palestinians spoke 2017 leader.
Defense Secretary Benny Gantz visited Abbas at his office in Ramallah on Thursday evening to underscore the current Israeli government’s changed approach.
During the meeting, the Palestinian leader “stressed the importance of creating a political horizon [and] Commitment to signed agreements,” reported Wafa, referring to a series of agreements signed between the two sides in the 1990s.
A statement from Gantz’s office said the meeting discussed “security and civilian coordination ahead of US President Biden’s visit to Israel.”
In addition to Israel, Biden will also visit the West Bank next week, where he will meet with Abbas in the first meeting between the Palestinian leader and a US president since 2017. The White House hopes the meeting will help draw a line amid the significant breakdown in US-Palestinian relations seen under the Trump administration.
In a separate development, earlier this week Abbas traveled to Algeria, where he also met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh for the first time in several years.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of Algeria’s independence, Algeria’s state news agency reported.
Relations between Abbas’ Fatah party, the largest Palestinian faction, and Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, have been strained for many years. By June 2007, the two groups were in open conflict with one another, in violence that ended the Palestinian Authority’s control of Gaza.