News
Palestinian Prime Minister resigns
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas accepted Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah’s resignation yesterday but asked him to serve as a caretaker leader until a new government is formed.
The Palestinian cabinet submitted its resignation after the Fatah central committee – the dominant secular-nationalist faction of President Abbas – recommended that Abbas form a new government of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) factions without the involvement of Islamist rivals Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
Azzam al-Ahmad, a senior Fatah and PLO official, told The Times of Israel: “We plan to form a new government of factions soon in response to Hamas’s failure to undertake its national responsibility in handing over the Gaza Strip to the legitimate PA.”
Whilst the Hamdallah government is nominally the Palestinian National Consensus Government, formed through agreement with Hamas and responsible for all the Palestinian areas, the PA has not been able to agree with Hamas the terms under which it will resume control of the Gaza Strip. Hamdallah’s convoy was attacked with a roadside bomb during a rare visit to the Gaza Strip in March 2018. The Palestinian Authority has withheld financial support for public services in the Gaza Strip and this has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis there.
Attempts to replace the government have been criticised by Hamas, with their spokesman Fawzi Barhoum saying: “Fatah’s call for forming a new government consisting of PLO factions will solidify the split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
Leading Fatah officials are reportedly personally dissatisfied with Hamdallah – formally a professor of English – and would prefer a Prime Minister more closely associated with Fatah. Israeli public broadcaster Kan quoted Palestinian sources on Sunday saying that Fatah Central Committee member Muhammed Shtayyeh was the front-runner to replace Hamdallah as Prime Minister. The Jerusalem Post reports that Saeb Erekat and Azzam al-Ahmed have also been suggested as possible Prime Ministers.