Report: Some US, Israeli, Arab officials see Mohammad Dahlan playing role in postwar Gaza

25 July 2024, 11:55 am

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Then-Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan gestures as he speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, January 3, 2011. (AP Photo/ Majdi Mohammed, File)

A report in the Wall Street Journal suggests that a number of officials, including in Israel, are pushing for Mohammad Dahlan, a former leader of Fatah, to oversee Gaza in a postwar era.

The news outlet suggests that “some US, Israeli and Arab officials” are putting Dahlan forward as a “temporary solution to a dilemma facing postwar Gaza.”

The news outlet cites Israeli political analysts saying that he is a figure Jerusalem could work with, and quotes “Arab and Hamas officials” saying that Dahlan has been holding conversations with Hamas and Fatah over potentially overseeing aid distribution in a future Palestinian-run Gaza.

In February, Dahlan — who served as Gaza security chief in a former Fatah government and now lives in Dubai — told the New York Times that an independent Palestinian leader backed by Arab peacekeepers could oversee the reconstruction of Gaza.