Early years (1972–1994) Following a decision at the
Palestinian National Council's special session in
Cairo in April 1972, the
Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization announced the establishment of Wafa as the official news agency of the Palestinians, While initially Wafa focused on publishing "the official version of news about Palestinian affairs," especially military statements of its revolutionary leadership, Wafa's work gradually expanded. It began issuing
felasteen el-thawra (meaning "Palestinian revolution"), a weekly magazine headed by Ahmed Abdel-Rahman. According to
Kenneth R. Timmerman, writing for
Commentary, Wafa was instrumental in shaping the Western narrative of the
1982 Lebanon War: Following the PLO's ouster from Lebanon during the
1982 Lebanon War, Wafa resumed its activities in
Cyprus and
Tunis from November 1982.
Under the PA (1994–2005) As a consequence of the
Oslo Accords in 1994, the PLO's media institutions transferred to the aegis of the
Palestinian Authority. Wafa opened offices in
Gaza City and
Ramallah.
Under Mahmoud Abbas (2004–present) In April 2005,
Mahmoud Abbas transferred the PNA's media assets, including Wafa, to the
Palestinian Ministry of Information under
Nabil Shaath. At the same time, he merged the General Information Commission into Wafa. Wafa was previously under the PA presidency and the PLO Executive Committee. Palestinian journalists had complained about the PNA's strict control over official media outlets, and the move was seen as an attempt to improve the official media's independence. Hamas won the
2006 Palestinian legislative election and to preempt Hamas from asserting control of the media assets, Abbas transferred them back to the presidential office. In September 2006, gunmen stormed Wafa's offices in
Khan Younis and smashed equipment and beat up one reporter. In 2015, Abbas appointed Khoulud Asaf as the new head of WAFA, the first female head of the organization. The president of the PA appoints WAFA's head, and the organization is viewed an arm of the Palestinian government, rather than an independent agency that criticizes the Palestinian government. In 2019, Wafa won the
Federation of Arab News Agencies award for best report, a regional organization of national news agencies in the
Arab World. ==Foreign language editions==