Hamas says it’s ready to cede Gaza governance to Palestinian technocratic body

By AFP 28 January 2026, 5:25 pm

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Palestinians walk along a street past a tent camp surrounded by buildings destroyed during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza City, December 30, 2025. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)

Hamas says it is ready to transfer the governance of Gaza to a Palestinian technocratic committee, while insisting the key Rafah Border Crossing be fully reopened within days, per the recent announcement of the technocratic committee’s chair.

“Protocols are prepared, files are complete, and committees are in place to oversee the handover, ensuring a complete transfer of governance in the Gaza Strip across all sectors to the technocratic committee,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem tells AFP.

The 15-member National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) is a team of Palestinian technocrats created as part of the US-sponsored ceasefire agreement that came into effect in October 2025.

It is charged with managing the day-to-day governance of postwar Gaza and will work under the supervision of US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.

The NCAG, headed by former Palestinian Authority deputy minister Ali Shaath, is expected to enter the Gaza Strip once the territory’s Rafah crossing, on its border with Egypt, reopens.

Hamas spokesman Qassem adds that the Rafah crossing “must be opened in both directions, with full freedom of exit and entry to the Gaza Strip, without any Israeli obstacles.”

Rafah is Gaza’s only gateway to the outside world that does not lead to Israel and is a key entry point for both people and goods. Shaath announced last week that Rafah would reopen in both directions the following week.

Israel has said it will only allow pedestrians to travel through the crossing as part of its “limited reopening” once it had recovered the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili. Soldiers brought back Gvili’s remains on Monday.

Qassem says that “it is clear that Hamas is committed to the agreement to stop the war on the Gaza Strip,” which began after the terror group’s onslaught in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

With the technocratic committee’s creation and the last hostage held in Gaza returned to Israel, the ceasefire deal’s next important milestones will be Hamas’s disarmament, which is meant to lead to Israel’s staged withdrawal from Gaza. Hamas has so far not surrendered its weapons.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.