PA premier says efforts to reform hampered by Israeli measures against Ramallah

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa urges international intervention to override Israeli restrictions on temporary shelters being allowed into Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are living in tents.

In an onstage interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mustafa says Palestinians are prepared to wait for the full reconstruction of Gaza, where some 85 percent of all infrastructure was destroyed in the war, according to UN estimates.

“But people cannot wait on simple temporary shelter to sit as a family together and start dealing with their lives,” Mustafa says.

Israel has largely limited aid entering Gaza to assistance that is deemed life-saving, while maintaining strict bans on so-called dual-use items, which it says can be used by Hamas to manufacture new weapons. Jerusalem is also refusing to fully reopen the Rafah Crossing until the body of the last hostage is returned and until Hamas gives up its weapons.

“My first plea to everybody is this, focus on what matters. First open the borders and get Israel to bypass this doctrine called dual-use in order to allow as much temporary housing units as possible,” Mustafa says.

The PA premier uses the opportunity to highlight Israel’s continued withholding of over $4 billion in tax revenues that it collects on Ramallah’s behalf and which it has not transferred at all, as required under the Oslo Accords, since May. Jerusalem cites various actions by the PA, including what it says is its continued payment of stipends to families of terrorists — though Ramallah disputes this.

“As a result, our ability to govern, our ability to provide basic services to our people, has been undermined,” Mustafa says.

He proceeds to lament punitive Israeli measures on the Palestinian banking system, which have caused an ongoing liquidity crisis in the West Bank. This is on top of the ban on 200,000 Palestinian workers from continuing their employment in Israel and its settlements since the October 7 attack, which has catapulted West Bank unemployment from 15% before the war to roughly 34%. Israel says it took the step due to security concerns.

Mustafa also points to the spike in IDF checkpoints — now roughly 1,000 throughout the West Bank, according to UN figures — that further complicate the Palestinian economy and livelihood, along with rampant settler violence and settlement growth. Israeli counterterror operations in West Bank refugee camps have also displaced some 40,000 Palestinians,

“It’s very sad to see the West Bank get to the point where people are barely making it,” the PA prime minister continues. “The international effort on Gaza is very important and badly needed, but we also need equal attention to what’s happening in the West Bank.”

Mustafa says Ramallah is still committed to reforms demanded by the international community and is in the midst of implementing many such steps. However, he argues that there is only so much the PA can do, so long as its ability to provide services to Palestinians is so hampered by Israel.