Gaza Strip: Hamas says government will dissolve when Palestinian technocratic leadership installed

Hamas says it will dissolve its existing government in the Gaza Strip once a Palestinian technocratic leadership committee takes over the territory, as mandated under a US-brokered peace plan.

But the militant group gave no specifics on when the change will occur.

Hamas and the rival Palestinian Authority, the Palestinians’ internationally recognised representative, have not announced the names of the technocrats, who are not supposed to be politically affiliated, and it remains unclear if they will be cleared by Israel and the US.

The “Board of Peace,” an international body led by US President Donald Trump, is supposed to oversee the government and other aspects of the ceasefire that took effect on October 10, including disarming Hamas and deploying an international security force.

The board’s members have not been announced.

Meanwhile, the post-ceasefire death toll continued to rise in the Gaza Strip, with Israeli gunfire killing three Palestinians in ‍two separate incidents, according to Palestinian hospital officials.

Medics ⁠said one Palestinian was killed in the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City, in an area under Palestinian control, while two others were killed in the enclave’s south in the town of ‌Bani Suhaila east of Khan Younis, an area Israel still occupies.

The ‍Israeli military said forces fired at a “terrorist” who crossed into the area under their control in the northern Gaza Strip, posing an immediate threat. A hit was identified, it added.

There was no comment on the incident ‌in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Fighting has largely abated since Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in October, two ‍years into the war, but it has not stopped entirely.

Israel and Hamas have traded blame over the violations of the deal.

A Hamas official said on Sunday that the group urged mediators to intervene to stop “daily Israeli killings that aim to derail the ceasefire deal”.

More than 440 Palestinians, most of them civilians according to Gazan health officials, have been killed since the truce, as well as three Israeli ‍soldiers.

The ceasefire began with a halt in fighting and the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip in exchange for thousands of Palestinians held by Israel.

The deal is still in its first phase as efforts continue to recover the remains of the final hostage left in the enclave.

An Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door information, said Hamas was sending a delegation to talks with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish officials about moving to the second phase.

In comments posted on his Telegram channel on Sunday, Hazem Kassem, a Hamas spokesman, called for speeding up the establishment of the technocratic committee.

The Egyptian official said Hamas will meet with other Palestinian factions this week to finalise the committee’s formation.

The Hamas delegation will be chaired by top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, the official said.

Mr Trump has said the “Board of Peace” will monitor the committee and handle the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force, additional pullbacks of Israeli troops and the Gaza Strip’s reconstruction.

The US has reported little progress on any of these fronts although the members of the board are expected to be announced this week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov has been selected as the board’s director-general.

Mr Mladenov is a former Bulgarian defence and foreign minister who served as United Nations envoy to Iraq before being appointed as the UN Mideast peace envoy from 2015 to 2020.

During that time, he had good working relations with Israel and frequently worked to ease Israel-Hamas tensions.

with Reuters