Top Abbas aide: Hamas must step aside, let Palestinian Authority govern Gaza
Mahmoud Habbash tells ToI that Palestinian people together with PA and Arab states have ability to coax terror group into giving up power after 17 years of ‘failed’ rule in Strip
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
AL-BIREH, West Bank — A senior adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called on Hamas to step aside and allow the PA to govern Gaza, as Ramallah tries to capitalize on growing frustration with the terror group in Washington and the region.
“Hamas failed in its control of Gaza over the last 17 years. It’s therefore now time for it to step aside and allow the Palestinian Authority to control Gaza again in order to [improve] the situation there and protect the Palestinian people and their rights,” Habbash said in a Monday interview with The Times of Israel from his office in al-Bireh north of Ramallah.
Habash has long been one of the PA’s harshest critics of Hamas, but he is also seen as someone who closely mirrors Abbas’s positions, particularly regarding the Gaza Strip.
The stance further demonstrates Ramallah’s aversion to reconciliation with Hamas, which some Arab allies have sought to broker, arguing that a unified Palestinian front is critical to securing eventual statehood.
PA officials have long claimed willingness to fold Hamas into the Palestine Liberation Organization — the international umbrella body representing Palestinians — if it renounces violence and recognizes all agreements that the PLO has reached with Israel, both non-starters for the terror group.
Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007, when the Islamist party conquered the territory from its Abbas-led Fatah rivals in a brutal civil war.
“We believe that the only side that has the right to control and manage Gaza is the PLO and the Palestinian Authority — not Hamas,” said Habbash, who also serves as the PA’s top Sharia judge.
The PLO formed the PA during the Oslo Accord agreements with Israel in the 1990s, envisioning it as a transitional governing body for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza ahead of the establishment of a sovereign state alongside Israel.
The peace process collapsed, but the PA has remained, though it now no longer controls Gaza and its grip is slipping in the West Bank.
Still, the PA is viewed as the Palestinians’ sole legitimate representative body by much of the international community, which views Israel’s effort to dismantle Hamas following the terror group’s October 7 onslaught as an opportunity to reunify Gaza and the West Bank under a single governing body.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out the possibility, likening the PA to Hamas and pointing to Abbas’s refusal to publicly condemn the October 7 attack. The premier’s critics have accused him of advancing policies over the last 15 years that saw Hamas boosted at the expense of the PA, which backs a two-state solution.
Senior Arab diplomats have told The Times of Israel that Hamas has indicated willingness to relinquish governing control of Gaza, but is not prepared to give up its weapons — which Habash said the PA would not accept.
“Our position is one authority, one law, one weapon,” said the top Abbas aide.
Asked how Hamas can be forced to comply, Habbash replied, “We don’t want to to use un-peaceful means to convince anybody, but the Palestinian people have the right to change the situation in Gaza.”
“The Palestinian Authority together with the Palestinian community in Gaza and the Arab states… have the power together to convince Hamas to change its position,” he added.
Egypt has sought to establish an interim, independent committee of Palestinian technocrats to help administer Gaza, as much of the international community has maintained that the PA must undergo significant reforms before it can return to the Strip.
But Habash maintained that the committee should be directly under Ramallah’s administration. “We don’t want Gaza to be another state. The committee in Gaza should and will be under the PA.”
Whether or not the Arab plan will be put to use will be a matter for the Trump administration to determine, though, and Washington is increasingly talking about the need for a proposal that removes Hamas from the equation entirely amid furry over the terror group’s conduct throughout the hostage release deals.
“The Palestinian people understand that the current era is critical. We have to be wise, and not give the Israeli side any excuse to continue the aggression against the Palestinians,” Habash said, pointing to his opposition to Hamas’s use of violence to fight Israel.
“The decision regarding the Palestinian cause will be decided by the White House — not the Israeli government. If the American administration really wants to [advance] the peace process, it can succeed,” he continued.
The senior Palestinian official avoided commenting on US President Donald Trump’s call for the US to take over Gaza and relocate all of its Palestinians, which Ramallah rejected out of hand.
“If President Trump succeeds in resolving the Palestinian cause according to the international law, he will go down in the history of the region and the world as a peacemaker,” Habbash said. “We really want peace, but we don’t understand peace under the pressure, under the aggression, under the occupation.”
As for elections — which the PA hasn’t held in nearly 20 years, Habbash stated they should be held but the priority is rehabilitating Gaza.
The Times of Israel Community.