Palestinian Authority prime minister submits government’s resignation
The Palestinian Authority prime minister announced the resignation of his government on Monday, paving the way for a shake-up in the governing body, which the U.S. hopes will eventually take on a role in postwar Gaza.
Many obstacles remain to making a revamped Palestinian Authority a reality. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces were driven from Gaza by Hamas in 2007, has made clear that he would like the authority to govern the enclave after the Israel-Hamas war. But it is deeply unpopular among Palestinians, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has roundly rejected the idea of putting the authority in charge of the territory.
Abbas accepted the resignation late Monday, the official Wafa news agency announced, but left Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh in place at the head of a caretaker government until a successor is named. There was no word on how long that might take.
The move appears to be the first step in a process toward ushering in reforms sought by the United States as international negotiations ramp up to bring about a cease-fire. The authority, created under interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals in the early 1990s, administers parts of the West Bank but is beset by corruption.
Israel seeks control over security and civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip, according to a long-awaited postwar plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The next stage and its challenges require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the new reality in the Gaza Strip,” Shtayyeh said at a Cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu has vowed to destroy the military and governing capabilities of Hamas — which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and staged the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that set off the current war. He has called for Israel to maintain open-ended security control in the territory after the conflict, with Palestinian officials in charge of civilian affairs.
The Palestinians have rejected such a limited role and seek an independent state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war.
Abbas is expected to choose Mohammad Mustafa, chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund, as the next prime minister. Mustafa is a U.S.-educated economist who has held senior positions at the World Bank and served in senior posts in the Palestinian Authority. Palestinian officials say he has a good, longstanding working relationship with American officials.
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