Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said in a press conference on Monday that he submitted the resignation of the government to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas due to “important political, security and economic developments” resulting from the Israeli war in Gaza along with increasing violence in the West Bank and Jerusalem. .
Abbas accepted the resignation, but asked the government to remain in caretaker capacity until a new government is formed, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
Shtayyeh said, “The next stage and its challenges require a new government and political arrangements that take into account the new reality in the Gaza Strip, national unity, and the urgent need to achieve Palestinian consensus.”
This step comes after months of intense deliberations between Ramallah, Washington and the Arab countries on the best ways to enhance the legitimacy and efficiency of the Palestinian Authority so that it can be part of the post-war solution in Gaza.
Consensus has converged on a vision for a strong prime minister and a government of technocrats that can curb the largely unchecked power currently wielded by the 88-year-old Abbas and his inner circle, according to US and Palestinian officials.
But significant obstacles remain: Israel has said it will not accept Palestinian Authority rule over Gaza in any post-war scenario, and has strongly opposed US calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state. There are doubts about Abbas's willingness to relinquish power and implement profound reforms that go beyond simply changing faces.
“If Abbas keeps appointing people, and keeps firing people, where exactly is the change?” said Nasser al-Qudwa, a longtime senior Fatah official who now lives in exile after falling out with Abbas. If a new government is appointed, it will be “the same government, but with a different premise.”
The future of the Palestinian Authority – which is supposed to one day evolve into the institutions of a Palestinian state – has been the subject of intense debate between the Israeli government and Washington, its closest international ally.
Diana Buttu, a former adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization negotiating team, said Abbas viewed efforts to usurp presidential powers “with a great deal of suspicion” in part because he benefited from a similar scenario when he first became prime minister in 2003.
At that time, the road map for peace drawn up by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia also sought to appoint an “capable” prime minister to limit the powers of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
“Here we are now 21 years later and we see the same pattern,” Bhutto said. “When people talk about a revitalized Palestinian Authority, what they are talking about is once again taking powers away from the president and giving them to the prime minister.”
Buttu said that anyone who takes this path will face a “confrontation” with Abbas, suggesting that this is one of the reasons for Shtayyeh’s resignation.
In his speech on Monday, Shtayyeh criticized Israeli efforts to transform the Authority into an administrative and security entity “devoid of any political significance.”
In Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's “Day After” plan for Gaza, released last week, the enclave is envisioned as being governed by “local entities with administrative expertise,” leaving open the possibility of playing a diluted version of authority.
When asked at a press conference on Monday whether Israel saw the new technocratic Palestinian Authority as an acceptable body to govern Gaza, Ilana Stein, head of international affairs in the Israeli government's Public Diplomacy Directorate, said it would have to disavow Hamas and its actions.
“We have to see what kind of government will be formed after the war and then we can discuss this matter,” she said.
The Palestinian Authority ran the Gaza Strip until Abbas's Fatah movement lost the elections in 2006, and Hamas took control a year later after bloody clashes.
The authority was established 30 years ago within the framework of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. It was established as a temporary body with a five-year mandate, aiming to oversee the establishment of a Palestinian state.
But as hopes for a two-state solution receded, the authority struggled to gain popular legitimacy. Its security cooperation with Israel has led many Palestinians to view it as a tool of the occupying power.
The Palestinian political shock came with the resumption of talks in Doha, Qatar, to try to reach an agreement on the release of more than 100 remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire. An Israeli delegation arrived to participate in the discussions, which are “lower-level technical talks,” according to a Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the negotiations. He said there was “not a lot of optimism” that they would make progress.
Benny Gantz, a member of Netanyahu's war cabinet, said that if the hostages are not released by the holy month of Ramadan — which begins around March 10 — Israel will expand its assault on Gaza to the southern city of Rafah, home to some Palestinians. 1.4 million displaced Palestinians
Washington and other allies urged Israel to halt the military offensive until civilians could be safely transferred. Stein said that the Israeli army presented the war cabinet with a plan to evacuate Rafah, but he refused to provide more details than to say that it would allow people to move north.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who remain in the northern Gaza Strip face a desperate struggle to survive. Aid deliveries to the north have almost stopped amid widespread chaos resulting from severe shortages and Israeli targeting of police forces guarding the convoys. The United Nations is among those pressuring Israel to allow aid to be delivered through a crossing in the north.
James McGoldrick, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian Territories, said, “The matter is being discussed and there appears to be a willingness to consider opening the north, whether it is the Al-Mintar crossing or any other place,” referring to a border crossing that Israel closed in 2011.
Diplomats also expressed concerns that the lack of a truce in Gaza could increase the risk of an expanded regional conflict, with Israel and Hezbollah entering a cycle of escalation. Hezbollah, the paramilitary group allied with Iran that is also the most powerful political group in Lebanon, has linked its participation in any negotiations to calm border tensions to a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Israeli military said its warplanes bombed Hezbollah air defenses in the Bekaa Valley on Monday — its deepest bombing of Lebanon since the conflict began — in response to the group shooting down an Israeli drone.
A Hezbollah spokesman said that two of its members were killed in the raid.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said on Sunday that more strikes are scheduled to be launched against Hezbollah, especially if there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
He said: “If a temporary truce is reached in Gaza, we will increase the firing in the north separately, and it will continue until Hezbollah’s complete withdrawal.” [from the border] And the return of Israeli citizens to their homes.”
Baalousha reported from Amman, Jordan. Leo Sands and Annabelle Timsit in London and Sarah Dadoush in Beirut contributed to this report
