JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Palestinian singer from Gaza won the Pan-Arab singing competition Arab Idol.

Mohammed Assaf, 22, won the singing contest late on Saturday night, a day after the show’s final was held in Beirut. The program is broadcast on the Saudi MBC channel.

Palestinians throughout Gaza and the West Bank watched the victory from coffee shops and giant screens, later pouring into the streets to celebrate.

He defeated Egyptian Ahmed Jamal and Syrian Farah Youssef, a woman.

Assaf’s final performance was “Alli al-keffiyeh,” or “Raise Your Keffiyeh,” a Palestinian nationalist anthem. He called on the Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah to settle their differences and unite.

Assaf, a wedding singer and university student before the contest, was named as the first United Nations youth goodwill ambassador to Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and in surrounding countries by The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA. He is expected to visit the West Bank to perform, according to Reuters.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reportedly offered him a position with “diplomatic standing.”

Assaf was born in Misrata, Libya to Palestinian parents from the Gaza Strip. The family returned to the refugee camp at Khan Yunis in Gaza when he was four years old.