2024-02-26 10:30:00
The head of the government of the Palestinian National Authority, Mohammed Shtayyeh, said he resigned, Reuters reports.
He sent a corresponding request to the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. It is believed that Abbas may ask Shtayyeh to become interim head of government until a permanent replacement is found.
As Reuters notes, Shtayyeh resigned amid pressure on Abbas from the United States, which is seeking to change the composition of the Palestinian Authority.
In his resignation letter, Shtayyeh said new government and political arrangements were needed in the next phase before forming a government, given the “emerging reality in the Gaza Strip,” and negotiations on Palestinian national unity needed to be held. Moreover, he said, it would require “the extension of the administration’s power to cover the entire Palestinian territory.”
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the resignation of the Shtayyeh government “only makes sense if it happens in the context of a national consensus on the mechanisms for the next phase.” It is unclear whether Hamas representatives will join the new government.
Fatah, which controls the Palestinian National Authority, and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, intend to meet in Moscow on February 28 to negotiate the creation of a unified government.
According to the Basic Law of the Palestinian National Authority, it is the government that has all key powers in the field of domestic and foreign policy. It should be formed based on the results of elections to the Legislative Council. However, the council is now not functioning, and power actually (bypassing the Basic Law) belongs to the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. The last elections to the Legislative Council were held in 2006, and Hamas won. Since then, the Islamist organization has insisted on its right to form a government, but Abbas has denied it this right.
The Israeli army has been fighting in the Gaza Strip for several months. They began following the Hamas attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people. During the fighting in the Gaza Strip, health authorities controlled by Hamas said almost 30 thousand people were killed. Israeli authorities have said that following the war, for security reasons, they will not agree to the Palestinian Authority governing the Gaza Strip.
1708946791
#Palestinian #Authority #government #resigned #Meduza
