PA prime minister: We’re ready for unity with Hamas, world needs to forget October 7

By Reuters and ToI Staff 18 February 2024, 11:27 am

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Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh attends a cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, October 16, 2023. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/Pool Photo via AP)

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh says the PA is still seeking unity with Hamas terror group and may hold talks with the group in Moscow on February 26.

“Russia has invited all Palestinian factions who will be meeting on the 26 of this month in Moscow. We will see if Hamas is ready to come to the ground with us,” he says at the Munich Security Conference.

“We are ready to engage. If Hamas is not then that’s a different story. We need Palestinian unity,” he says. He adds that Hamas needs to meet certain prerequisites.

Asked about making common cause with a group that carried out atrocities on October 7, Shtayyeh indicates that the world needs to forget the massacre happened.

“One should not continue focusing on October 7,” he says.

He avoids questions about the PA making reforms sought by the West and indicates PA President Mahmoud Abbas will not transfer power to a deputy.

“It’s not about reform, it’s not about anything,” he says. “It’s about Palestinians wanting an end to occupation.”