Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.
- Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has resigned.
- The resignation comes amid pressure on President Mahmoud Abbas to shake up the Palestinian Authority as international efforts to halt fighting in Gaza intensify.
- In a statement to ministers, Mr. Shtayeh said the next steps “will require new government and political arrangements that take into account the new realities in the Gaza Strip.”
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Monday he would resign to allow for a broader consensus among Palestinians on a post-Israel war political arrangement against the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.
The move comes as the United States intensifies international efforts to halt fighting in Gaza and begin work on building a political system to govern the post-war enclave. This was carried out under increasing pressure.
His resignation must be accepted by Abbas, who may ask to remain interim prime minister until a permanent replacement is appointed.
Shtayeh, an academic economist who took office in 2019, said in a statement to ministers that next steps must take into account new realities in the Gaza Strip, which has been ravaged by nearly five months of intense fighting.
He said the next step “will require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the new reality in the Gaza Strip, the urgent need to negotiate national unity and build a consensus among Palestinians.”
It would also require “an expansion of the authority's authority over all of Palestine.”
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The Palestinian Authority, established 30 years ago under the Oslo Interim Peace Accords, has limited control over parts of the occupied West Bank, but the 2007 conflict with Hamas He subsequently lost power in Gaza.
Fatah and Hamas, the factions that control the PA, are trying to reach an agreement to form a unity government and are scheduled to meet in Moscow on Wednesday. A senior Hamas official said the move required a broader agreement on Palestinian governance.
“The resignation of the Shtayyeh government only makes sense within the context of a national consensus on the arrangements for the next step,” Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters.
Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas and has taken control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority for security reasons after the war that erupted following the October 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 Israelis and foreigners. He says he will not accept it. According to Israeli tallies.
According to the Palestinian Health Authority, about 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting in Gaza so far and nearly the entire population has been forced to flee their homes.
