Following discussions in Cairo under the aegis of the Egyptian authorities, the Palestinian enemy brothers, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, approved a draft agreement on Tuesday on the formation of a committee to administer the Gaza Strip after the war. Project which must still be validated by a presidential decree from Mahmoud Abbas, according to a member of the Hamas negotiating team and another from Fatah.
According to the text, the committee – composed of ten to fifteen personalities not affiliated with one or the other movement – would have authority over all matters relating to humanitarian aid, education, health, the economy and reconstruction, in coordination with the Palestinian Authority government in Ramallah. The committee would also be responsible for administering the Palestinian part of the Rafah crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the small territory’s only gateway to a country other than Israel.
The announcement of the agreement comes against the backdrop of a renewed diplomatic initiative to end the war between Hamas and Israel which has devastated the Gaza Strip, according to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres , to an “apocalyptic” situation.
These efforts, under the aegis of the United States, in coordination with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, according to Washington, are taking place in the wake of the entry into force of a fragile truce in Lebanon between Israel and the Hezbollah, ally of Hamas. With US President Joe Biden’s government due to hand over to Donald Trump in January, the Palestinians are under intense pressure from the United States to ensure that Hamas will play no role in Gaza once the war ends. The Islamist movement has made it clear in recent months that it is not interested in administering current affairs in the Gaza Strip once the war is over.
Israel does not want to see the Palestinian Authority play a role
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the most right-wing in the history of Israel, has made the destruction of Hamas in Gaza one of its war aims but has also repeatedly expressed its firm opposition to seeing the The Palestinian Authority will play little role in the Gaza Strip after the war.
The Fatah delegation in Cairo, led by Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the party’s Central Committee, is now due to return to Ramallah today with a view to obtaining the final agreement from Mahmoud Abbas.
The war was triggered on October 7, 2023 by an unprecedented attack by Hamas which led to the death of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data and including hostages killed or died in captivity. The Israeli military campaign of retaliation in the Gaza Strip has left at least 44,466 dead, the majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health for Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN.