The Palestinian unity government resigned yesterday in a deepening rift with Gaza as the blockaded territory’s de facto rulers Hamas held separate, indirect talks with Israel.
An aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah “handed his resignation to Abbas, and Abbas ordered him to form a new government.”
Discussions to form a new government would include consultations with the various Palestinian factions, including Hamas, aide Nimr Hammad said.
Photo: EPA
The government of technocrats was formed last year to replace rival administrations in Gaza and the West Bank.
“The government will continue to function until we have a new one,” a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official said before the official resignation. “I think what’s coming now is the formation of a government with politicians, not a government of technocrats.”
Officials said the move had been under discussion for several months because of the Palestinian Cabinet’s inability to operate in the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip.
However, Hamas rejected any unilateral dissolution of the unity government and said it had not been consulted.
“Hamas rejects any one-sided change in the government without the agreement of all parties,” spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters. “No one told us anything about any decision to change and no one consulted with us about any change in the unity government.”
However, senior Hamas official Ziad al-Zaza struck a more conciliatory note, calling on Abbas “to form a unity government with all national and Islamic factions to face Israeli occupation.”
Outgoing Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Malki said “the prime minister always wanted to incorporate new ministers.”
“At the end of the day, it’s not going to change anyway our position when it comes to peace and our commitment towards peace with Israel, our responsibility regionally and internationally fighting terrorism,” he said during a visit to Prague.
“Rest assured that whatever change will take place is not going to hinder our commitments regionally or internationally,” he said.
The move comes at a critical time, with Hamas sources saying it is holding separate, indirect talks with Israel on ways to firm up an informal ceasefire agreement that took hold in August last year, ending a 50-day war in Gaza.
It was not clear whether Abbas’ move to dissolve the government was linked to those talks, but the PLO official said he believed that they played a role.
“If you end up having a different kind of status for Gaza, then basically the idea of a Palestinian state completely disappears,” the official said.
Another high-ranking Hamas official said he believed Abbas decided to act after receiving word of the indirect contacts.
“When Mahmoud Abbas heard of international envoys taking part in talks to solve the [Gaza] crisis, it caught him off guard, then he took that decision,” Bassem Naim told reporters. “He felt there was a possibility that a solution be found without the [Palestinian] Authority being involved.”
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