Palestinian PM says won’t take over Gaza without solution that includes West Bank

If Israel removes Hamas’s leadership in the Gaza Strip, as it has vowed to do, the Palestinian Authority will not go back to governing the territory unless there’s a “comprehensive” solution involving the West Bank as well, the PA’s prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, says.

“To have the Palestinian Authority go to Gaza and run the affairs of Gaza without a political solution for the West Bank, as if this Palestinian Authority is going aboard an F-16 or an Israeli tank?” Shtayyeh tells the Guardian newspaper in an interview in his office in Ramallah.

“I don’t accept it. Our president [Mahmoud Abbas] does not accept it. None of us will accept it.”

“I think what we need is a comprehensive, peaceful vision,” he adds. “The West Bank needs a solution, and then link Gaza to it within the framework of a two-state solution.”