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.”
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from