Palestinian Authority prime minister and government resign amid pressure to reform

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh and his government submitted their resignations on Monday, amid pressure on the deeply unpopular Palestinian government to reform as the war in Gaza rages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Shtayyeh opened the door to a national unity government including Hamas in his resignation statement, without explicitly naming the militant group that governs Gaza and is gaining popularity in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority (PA) is based.

“The upcoming phase and its challenges necessitate new governmental and political arrangements, taking into consideration the evolving situation in Gaza, national unity discussions, the urgent need for Palestinian-Palestinian consensus based on national unity, broad participation, solidarity, and the extension of authority over all of Palestine,” Shtayyeh said in a televised government meeting.

The PA, which is dominated by the Fatah political party, held administrative control over Gaza until 2007, after Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections in the occupied territories and expelled it from the strip. Since then, Hamas has ruled Gaza and the PA governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The resignation comes as the PA faces intense pressure from the United States to reform and improve its governance in the West Bank. The PA has long been seen as corrupt by US politicians and Palestinians themselves.

The US welcomes steps by the PA “to reform and revitalize itself,” State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Monday.

“With respect to both the resignation and a future government ultimately, the leadership of the Palestinian Authority is a question for the Palestinians themselves to decide. It’s not a matter that I’m going to comment on from here, but we do welcome steps for the PA to reform and revitalize itself,” Miller said at a department briefing.

The PA was set up in the mid-1990s as an interim government pending Palestinian independence after the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Oslo Accords with Israel. It is headquartered in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah and exercises nominal self-rule in parts of the territory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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