Fatah, Hamas agree to form committee to run postwar Gaza
Proposal calls for nonpartisan panel to administer Strip, and for all crossings into territory to return to pre-October 2023 operations
Palestinian terror group Hamas and the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah party have agreed to create a committee to jointly administer postwar Gaza, negotiators from both sides said Tuesday.
Under the plan, which needs the approval of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the committee would be composed of 10-15 nonpartisan figures with authority on matters related to the economy, education, health, humanitarian aid, and reconstruction, according to a draft of the proposal seen by AFP.
It is unclear if Israel would agree to the deal being formulated. Israel rejects any role for Hamas in Gaza after the war the terror group started last year, and has also said it does not trust Abbas’s PA to run the enclave.
Following talks in Cairo brokered by Egypt, the two rival factions agreed the committee would administer the Palestinian side of the Rafah checkpoint on the border with Egypt — the territory’s only crossing not shared with Israel.
The Rafah Crossing, a major conduit for humanitarian aid into Gaza, has been closed since Israel captured it in May, with Egyptian authorities refusing to cooperate with Israeli forces on keeping the gateway open.
War erupted on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a devastating cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The thousands of terrorists who rampaged through the south of the country also abducted 251 people.
Israel’s military response was aimed at destroying Hamas as a ruling power in Gaza, ensuring no similar attack could be carried out again, and freeing the hostages.
Fatah’s delegation, led by central party committee member Azzam al-Ahmad, was to return to Ramallah on Tuesday to seek Abbas’s final approval, negotiators from both sides told AFP.
The Hamas delegation was headed by politburo member Khalil al-Hayya.
The London-based pan-Arab news site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed also said it had seen a copy of the document and reported the agreement lays out plans to establish a committee to administer the Strip, “reporting to the Palestinian government” based in the West Bank.
The document has six sections, the first of which stresses preserving “the unity” of Palestinian territories according to the pre-1967 borders, the report said. The second deals with strengthening “communication between the Palestinian government in the West Bank and the committee in Gaza.”
Other sections deal with determining that the committee would act according to the Palestinian political system and would not bring about a separation between the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian territories. The committee is to continue its work until “the reasons that led to its formation are eliminated,” general elections are held, “or another formula agreed upon nationally is adopted.”
The committee will only begin its work after border crossings into Gaza return to operating as before October 2023 and the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt is reopened according to a 2005 agreement that put its operation in the hands of Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, under the supervision of the European Union, the report said.
A final formula for the plan also requires ratification by all Palestinian factions at a meeting that would again be held in Cairo, Al-Arabiya reported.
On Monday, Egypt’s foreign minister said that Fatah and Hamas representatives were in Cairo for talks seeking to bring postwar Gaza under the full control of the Fatah-dominated PA.
Gaza has been under the authority of Hamas since the terror group seized the territory in a bloody 2007 coup from the PA, which currently rules over parts of the West Bank. Repeated attempts at mending the rift between Fatah and Hamas have failed, wrecked by the factions’ bitter rivalry over power.
The talks are part of Egypt’s broader mediation efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and to expand humanitarian access to Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has not offered a clear plan for who will govern Gaza after the fighting stops, and far-right elements of his coalition have pushed for maintaining Israeli control, as well as the reestablishment of settlements in the enclave.
Mediators including Egypt, Qatar, and the United States have so far failed to secure a truce that would end the war and facilitate a release of the hostages held by terror groups in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel for crimes that include terror offenses.
Netanyahu has stated that the war will continue until Hamas is dismantled. The terror group has demanded an end to the war and has rejected proposals that would allow Israel to maintain control of the border with Egypt and resume its offensive.
As US President Joe Biden’s administration prepares to hand over power to president-elect Donald Trump in January, Palestinians face intense US pressure to ensure Hamas will have no role in Gaza once the war ends.
