The World Briefly
February 27, 2024A ‘Half-Step’
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The prime minister and government of the Palestinian Authority (PA) stepped down Monday as the United States and Middle Eastern countries are demanding reforms for the body to govern Gaza after the war, a move falling short of key demands, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In a televised statement, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said he and his cabinet had offered their resignations in writing to President Mahmoud Abbas, paving the way for the appointment of a technocratic government. American and Arab partners are pushing for a new government to conduct a series of changes to the PA, which partly rules the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The proposed changes include transferring competence from the president to a new prime minister. Abbas remains in power despite calls for him to quit and has yet to approve the government’s resignation. This prompted the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which represents Palestinians internationally, to call the resignation a “half-step.”
Negotiators are currently working on a ceasefire deal in the conflict that opposes the Israeli government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the armed group Hamas, which has governed the Gaza enclave since 2006. They are also scrambling to lay the ground for the aftermath of the war.
International leaders such as US President Joe Biden would like to see the PA run both the West Bank and Gaza after the war, the Washington Post reported. Netanyahu opposes the plan, while an overwhelming majority of Palestinians do not trust Abbas, whom they consider ineffective and corrupt.
“The next phase 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 for achieving inter-Palestinian consensus,” Shtayyeh said. Palestinian territories have been battered by an internal conflict that culminated in 2007, when Hamas expelled Fatah, Abbas’ party, from the ruling apparatus in Gaza.
Senior Fatah members have advertised their wish to reconcile with Hamas, and a meeting between the two factions was set to be held in Moscow on Monday. Five Arab states uphold a plan for Hamas to be folded into the secular PLO, but Israel and Western allies reject any role for the Islamist group in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel struck air defense systems operated by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah following the downing of an Israeli drone. The confrontation, 50 miles deep into Lebanon, saw two Hezbollah members killed. At the same time, the Israeli Defense Force shared a plan to evacuate civilians from the southern Gazan city of Rafah, which it plans to invade despite the disapproval of some Western allies.
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