US official says PA must show it ‘can run West Bank’ before getting a chance to control Gaza

By Jacob Magid

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31 July 2026, 6:22 am

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Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

Asked about the role of the Palestinian Authority in the postwar management of Gaza, a senior US official briefing reporters says the PA should focus on carrying out reforms in the West Bank so that it can one day maybe be ready to govern the Strip.

The US official acknowledges the liaison office that was set up to coordinate between the Board of Peace and the PA.

“But at the end of the day, they have to focus on reforms. They have to show that they can run the West Bank and then obviously we can consider them coming into Gaza,” he says.

“The PA has not been effective in the West Bank, and Hamas has been much worse in Gaza, so we’re going to try something new,” the senior US official adds, making no mention of the long list of punitive actions taken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that have brought the PA to the brink of collapse and have significantly hobbled its ability to carry out reforms even if it wants to.

Pouring further salt in the wound, the US official confirms that one of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s top rivals, ousted Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan, has been among the people that Washington has consulted about the postwar management of the Strip.

An Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel on Thursday that US President Donald Trump’s top aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner has been in constant contact with Dahlan over the past year regarding Gaza.

“Mohammed Dahlan is one of the people we speak to. He gives us a lot of good knowledge about Gaza and the situation,” the US official says.

Adopting a softer tone toward the PA, the senior Board of Peace official on the call stresses that there is full transparency with the PA.

The official also notes that the NCAG is only meant to be a transitional authority in Gaza and that if the disarmament proposal is upheld, it will “reignite the prospect for a political horizon for the Palestinian people, which comes when the PA is reformed and it’s able to take over.”