Mehmet Solmaz
31 October 2023•Update: 31 October 2023
BIRMINGHAM, England
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has no intention of governing Gaza again after the Israel-Hamas conflict without a comprehensive agreement that includes the West Bank in a Palestinian state, said the authority’s prime minister.
Israeli officials have previously said that their plan for the end of the Gaza war is to have some form of transitional authority rule the territory, leading to the restoration of the PA.
Speaking to the Guardian news outlet for an article published Monday, Mohammad Shtayyeh, who has been prime minister since 2019, said the PA would not cooperate without a return to a genuine peace process resulting in two sovereign states.
“To have the Palestinian Authority go to Gaza and run the affairs of Gaza without a political solution for the West Bank, as if this Palestinian Authority is going aboard an F-16 or an Israeli tank? I don’t accept it. Our president (Mahmoud Abbas) does not accept it. None of us will accept it,” he said.
“I think what we need is a comprehensive, peaceful vision. The West Bank needs a solution, and then link Gaza to it within the framework of a two-state solution.”
For Shtayyeh, the first priority is to stop the bombing of Gaza as well as violence in the West Bank, in which he said 110 Palestinians had been killed over the past three weeks by Israeli security forces and settlers.
The PA leadership has called for an emergency Arab summit which Shtayyeh hoped would take place on Nov. 10 to restore unity on the creation of a functional Palestinian state.
Responding to growing public anger towards the PA over its inability to defend Palestinian lives, Shtayyeh insisted that they would never abandon non-violence to regain popularity.
President Abbas “can be popular in one minute. He can say: ‘OK, I order the Palestinian security forces to shoot at the Israelis.’ But he is a realistic man.”
However, Shtayyeh also acknowledged that anger was growing and the situation in the West Bank was “boiling” and becoming “seriously dangerous.”
“We are caught between the rock and the hammer,” he said.
