RAMALLAH (Reuters) – The Palestinian Authority have to be the only governing energy in Gaza after the warfare, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa mentioned on Wednesday, as expectations grew {that a} deal to halt preventing and begin returning Israeli hostages was close to.
Who will run Gaza after the warfare stays one of many nice unanswered questions within the negotiations, which have centered on a direct ceasefire and exchanging hostages nonetheless held within the enclave for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Talking at a convention in Norway, Mustafa mentioned strain should proceed to agree the ceasefire in Gaza and permit in additional humanitarian assist for greater than 2 million folks going through a extreme humanitarian disaster after 15 months of warfare.
Solely the Palestinian Authority is legitimately positioned to imagine governance within the Gaza Strip after preventing ends and there must be no try to separate Gaza off from the occupied West Financial institution as a part of a Palestinian state, he mentioned.
“While we are waiting for the ceasefire, it is important to stress that it won’t be acceptable for any other entity to govern the Gaza Strip but the legitimate Palestinian leadership and the government of the state of Palestine,” he informed the convention, based on the textual content of his speech.
He mentioned Norway’s recognition final yr of a Palestinian state underneath the Palestinian Authority was an vital step in the direction of the two-state resolution backed in precept by many of the worldwide group.
Israel has rejected any involvement by Hamas, which ran Gaza earlier than the warfare, however it has been nearly equally against rule by the Palestinian Authority, the physique set up underneath the Oslo interim peace accords three a long time in the past that has restricted governing energy within the West Financial institution.
Israeli officers accuse the PA of supporting assaults in opposition to Israel and say that broad help for Hamas amongst Palestinians exterior Gaza implies that any Palestinian state would inevitably be taken over by the Islamist group.
The PA, dominated by the Fatah faction created by former Palestinian chief Yasser Arafat, additionally faces opposition from rival faction Hamas, which drove the PA out of Gaza in 2007 after a short civil warfare.