Abbas will only agree to rule Gaza as part of statehood deal — Palestinian official

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has told Biden Administration officials since the outbreak of Israel’s war with Hamas that the PA will only consider returning to rule the Gaza Strip if it is part of a broader peace initiative with Israel, a Palestinian official tells The Times of Israel.

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is not currently focused on who will govern Gaza after the IDF succeeds in its goal of toppling Hamas, US officials have begun inquiring into possible scenarios and have asked Abbas and his aides whether the PA would be willing to once again rule the coastal enclave.

Such a scenario would be highly difficult to implement, given the historically weak state of the PA. The governing body in the West Bank has been plagued by corruption, has lost face among Palestinians for cooperating with Israel and has seen international support shrink with rejected peace offers and continued stipends to Palestinian security prisoners.

Critics of Netanyahu have accused him of strengthening Hamas over the past 15 years in order to divide the Palestinian factions and weaken the more moderate PA, which recognizes Israel and supports a two-state solution.

Abbas has told Biden officials that he will not return to Gaza “on top of an Israeli tank,” the Palestinian official says, confirming a report in the Ynet news site.

Instead, the official says that the PA president has insisted that Israel publicly state its intention to allow for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza — something that is surely a non-starter for the current hardline Israeli government.

The Palestinian official claimed that the Biden administration recognizes that returning the PA to the Gaza Strip would not be able to occur overnight but believes there are no good options at the moment.

Discussions on the matter are still in their early stages, the official says.