From the Liveblog of
Sunday, March 10, 2024
Hamas must hand over control of Gaza to Palestinian Authority, top Ramallah official says
Gianluca Pacchiani is the Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
Mahmoud Habbash, a top adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, says in an interview with the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya network that the new PA technocratic government, which is slated to be announced shortly, will be under the thumb of Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party alone, and there will not be room for representatives of other factions.
His statement rules out the possibility of a reconciliation between Fatah, which controls the West Bank-based PA, and the terror group Hamas, which has ruled over Gaza since 2007, after numerous unsuccessful efforts to reach an agreement over a unity government.
“Hamas must hand over the reins of power in Gaza to the Palestinian Authority,” says Habbash.
Following Hamas’s savage onslaught against Israel on October 7, in which some 1,200 were killed and 253 were taken to Gaza as hostages, Israel has launched a vast military operation inside the Palestinian enclave and vowed to eradicate the group from Gaza.
The entire PA government in Ramallah submitted its resignation on February 26, a move that came amid growing US pressure on Abbas to shake up the Authority, which would allow it to take a greater role in ruling post-war Gaza.
The Times of Israel Community.