RAMALLAH: Israeli departure from Gaza and an immediate ceasefire were prioritized by Palestinian news agency WAFA as Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa formed a new government on Thursday. Mustafa will also hold the position of Foreign Minister.
Mustafa, a prominent businessman and confidant of President Mahmoud Abbas, was named premier this month with the responsibility of assisting in the restructuring of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has limited autonomy within the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In addition, he was given the responsibility of overseeing the reconstruction and relief efforts in Gaza, which has been devastated by almost five months of fighting. He also serves as foreign minister, taking over for Riyad al-Maliki, who held the role since 2009.
In an attempt to appease international pressure for reform in the administration, Abbas, who as president is still by far the most influential person in the PA, named the new government.
Demands an immediate end to hostilities and Israel’s evacuation from Gaza
According to WAFA, he approved Mustafa’s cabinet, which included Omar al-Bitar, a financial expert, as finance minister and Muhamad al Amour, the president of the Palestinian Businessmen Association, as minister of economy. Ziad Hab al-Reeh, the former head of the PA’s internal intelligence agency, was retained as interior minister.
There will be a state minister for “relief affairs” in the upcoming cabinet.
In a cabinet statement addressed to Abbas, Mustafa stated that the top national goal is an immediate end to hostilities in Gaza and an Israeli withdrawal from the territory, along with permitting large-scale humanitarian relief to enter and reach every area, according to WAFA.
“In order to prevent settlers’ terrorism in the West Bank, cease settlement activity and aggression, and facilitate the beginning of the recovery process and reconstruction,” Mustafa continued.
Although it has criticized Mustafa’s selection, Hamas, the movement that ruled Gaza until Israel invaded it following the attack on southern Israel on October 7, did not immediately respond to the announcement of his new government.
Long-standing tensions existed between Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah political group, which rules the PA. The two groups even engaged in a brief conflict before to Fatah’s expulsion from the region in 2007.
Nonetheless, it has consistently denounced the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip subsequent to the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 and has maintained that it needs to be involved in the governance of Gaza post-conflict.
