Abbas reiterates PA readiness to assume control of Hamas-free Gaza Strip

NEW YORK — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas tells the UN General Assembly that the PA is ready to bear “to bear full responsibility for governance and security” in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas “will not have a role to play.”

The PA has been eager to replace Hamas in Gaza, but Israel has rejected the idea outright, while the US and the Arab world have maintained that Ramallah must undergo significant reforms until it can be better suited for the role and that a transitional body of independent Palestinian technocrats should govern the Strip in the interim.

Still, Abbas reiterates what much of the international community would like to hear — that “Hamas and other factions will have to hand over their weapons to the Palestinian Authority as part of a process to build the institutions of one state, one law and one legal security force.”

“We reiterate that we do not want an armed state,” Abbas says.

The PA president laments that the UN has passed over 1,000 resolutions regarding the Palestinian plight that have gone unimplemented.

He says that while the PA has adhered to the Oslo Accords, Israel has not done the same.

“We made all our efforts to build the institutions of a modern Palestinian state that lives side by side in peace and security with Israel, but Israel did not adhere to the signed agreements and has worked systematically on undermining them,” Abbas says.