Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has addressed the General Assembly for many years and generally leads the Palestinian delegation. File
| Photo Credit: AP

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. File
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. File
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters in New York, U.S., on September 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The head of the Palestinian Authority denounced Israel and its offensive in the Gaza Strip in front of world leaders Thursday (September 26, 2024), appealing to other nations to stop what he called a “genocidal war” against a place and people he said had been totally destroyed.

Mahmoud Abbas used the rostrum of the U.N. General Assembly as he typically does — to criticize Israel. But this was the first time he did so since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel that triggered an Israeli military operation that has devastated the Gaza Strip.

Abbas strode to the podium to loud applause and a few unintelligible shouts. His first words were a sentence repeated three times: “We will not leave. We will not leave. We will not leave.”

He accused Israel of destroying Gaza and making it unlivable. And he said that his government should govern post-war Gaza as part of an independent Palestinian state, a vision that Israel’s hardline government rejects.

Abbas has had little influence in Gaza since Hamas overthrew his forces and seized power of the territory in 2007. His internationally recognized government administers only small semi-autonomous zones in the occupied West Bank. The U.S. has said a reformed Palestinian Authority should play a future role in Gaza, but Israel does not consider him a reliable partner and has ruled that out.

“Palestine is our homeland. It is the land of our fathers and our grandfathers. It will remain ours. And if anyone were to leave, it would be the occupying usurpers,” he said.

Israel has maintained its military operations are justified and are necessary to defend itself. South Africa has filed a genocide case against Israel in the U.N.’s top court. Israel rejects the accusations.

Danny Danon, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, responded to Abbas’ speech within minutes with a critical assessment. “Abbas spoke for 26 minutes and did not say the word ‘Hamas’ once. Since the massacre of Oct. 7, Abbas has failed to condemn Hamas for their crimes against humanity,” he said.

“Only when he stands on the U.N. platform does he talk about a peaceful solution,” Danon said. “There is no greater hypocrisy and lie than this: Abbas’ legacy is one of chronic weakness in the face of terrorism and hatred.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the General Assembly on Friday and arrived in New York shortly before Abbas spoke. Netanyahu’s visit is expected to draw protests in the neighborhood where the U.N. compound sits. A nationwide series of campus protests against Israel’s operations in Gaza swept the United States in the spring and largely originated at Columbia University, about 70 blocks north of the United Nations.

“The American people are marching in the streets in these demonstrations. We are appreciative of them,” Abbas said.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,500 Palestinians and wounded more than 96,000 others, according to the latest figures released Thursday by the Health Ministry. The ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants, but more than half the dead have been women and children, including about 1,300 children under the age of 2.

Israel began its response after Hamas attackers sneaked across the border into Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking about 250 others hostage. The response by Netanyahu’s government was swift and fierce and has continued ever since.

In recent days, Israel has turned its attention to the border with Lebanon, where it is targeting Hezbollah militants and has inflicted civilian casualties as well.

Hezbollah began attacking Israel almost immediately after the Hamas invasion, and ongoing fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes on both sides of the border. Israel is vowing to step up its attacks on Hezbollah until its citizens can return safely to their homes.

Late Wednesday, the United States, France and other allies jointly called for an “immediate” 21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations as fears grow that the violent escalation in recent days — following 11 months of cross-border exchange of fire — could grow into an all-out war.

The United Nations says over 90,000 people have been displaced by five days of Israeli strikes on Lebanon, bringing the total to 200,000 people who have been displaced in Lebanon since Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel in support of Hamas after it stormed into Israel, sparking the Israel-Hamas war.

Abbas spent big chunks of his speech at the United Nations talking about the state of life in Gaza, and he painted a bleak picture.

“Entire family names have been written out of the civil record,” he said. “Gaza is no longer fit for life. Most homes have been destroyed. The same applies for most buildings. … Roads. Churches. Mosques. Water plants. Electric plants. Sanitation plants. Anyone who has gone to Gaza and known it before would not recognize it anymore.”

Among his demands, none of which are new: A full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip — not “buffer zones.” Allowing Gaza’s displaced Palestinians — an estimated 90% of the population — to return to their homes. And a central role for Abbas’ government in any future Gaza.

“Stop this crime. Stop it now. Stop killing children and women. Stop the genocide. Stop sending weapons to Israel. This madness cannot continue. The entire world is responsible for what is happening to our people in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Facing a swirl of conflicts and crises across the fragmented world, leaders attending this week’s annual United Nations gathering are being challenged: Work together — not only on front-burner issues but on modernising the international institutions born after World War II so that they can tackle the threats and problems of the future.

United Nations (UN) secretary-general Antonio Guterres issued the challenge a year ago after sounding a global alarm about the survival of humanity and the planet: Come to a “Summit of the Future” and make a new commitment to multilateralism – the foundation of the United Nations and many other global bodies – and start fixing the aging global architecture to meet the rapidly changing world.

At UN summit, India calls for global shift to sustainable living

The U.N. chief told reporters last week that the summit “was born out of a cold, hard fact: international challenges are moving faster than our ability to solve them.” He pointed to “out-of-control geopolitical divisions” and “runaway” conflicts, climate change, inequalities, debt and new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence which have no guardrails.

The two-day summit started on Sunday (September 22, 2024), two days before the high-level meeting of world leaders begins at the sprawling U.N. compound in New York City.

The General Assembly approved the summit’s main outcome document — a 42-page “Pact of the Future” — on Sunday morning (September 22, 2024) with a bang of the gavel by Assembly President Philémon Yang signifying consensus, after the body voted 143-7 with 15 abstentions against considering Russian-proposed amendments to significantly water it down.

The pact is a blueprint to address global challenges from conflicts and climate change to Artificial Intelligence and reforming the U.N. and global institutions. Its impact will depend on its implementation by the Assembly’s 193 member nations.

“Leaders must ask themselves whether this will be yet another meeting where they simply talk about greater cooperation and consensus or whether they will show the imagination and conviction to actually forge it,” said Agnès Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International. “If they miss this opportunity, I shudder to think of the consequences. Our collective future is at stake.”

The summit is the prelude to this year’s high-level meeting, held every September. More than 130 Presidents, Prime Ministers and monarchs are slated to speak along with dozens of Ministers, and the issues from the summit are expected to dominate their speeches and private meetings, especially the wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan and the growing possibility of a wider Mideast war.

“There is going to be a rather obvious gap between the Summit of the Future, with its focus on expanding international cooperation, and the reality that the U.N. is failing in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan,” said Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the International Crisis Group. “Those three wars will be top topics of attention for most of the week.”

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One notable moment at Tuesday’s opening assembly meeting: U.S. President Joe Biden’s likely final major appearance on the world stage, a platform he has tread upon and revelled in for decades.

At the upcoming meetings, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters this week: “The most vulnerable around the world are counting on us to make progress, to make change, to bring about a sense of hope for them.”

She said, “To meet the many global challenges, the U.S. focus at the U.N. meetings will be on ending “the scourge of war.” Roughly two billion people live in conflict-affected areas.”

Last September, the war in Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took center stage at the U.N. global gathering. But as the first anniversary of Hamas’ deadly attack in southern Israel approaches on October 7, the spotlight is certain to be on the war in Gaza and escalating violence across the Israeli-Lebanon border, which is now threatening to spread to the wider Middle East.

Iran supports both Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants. Its new President, Masoud Pezeshkian will address world leaders on Tuesday afternoon (September 24, 2024.) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to speak on Thursday morning (September 26, 2024) and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday afternoon.

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Mr. Zelenskyy will get the spotlight twice. He will speak on Tuesday (September 24, 2024) at a high-level meeting of the U.N. Security Council — called by the United States, France, Japan, Malta, South Korea and Britain — and will address the General Assembly on Wednesday morning (September 25, 2024.) .

Slovenia, which holds the council’s rotating presidency this month, chose the topic “Leadership for Peace” for its high-level meeting on Wednesday, challenging its 15 member nations to address why the U.N. body charged with maintaining international peace and security is failing — and how it can do better.

“The event follows our observation that we live in a world of grim statistics, with the highest number of ongoing conflicts, with record high casualties among civilians, among humanitarians, among medical workers, among journalist,” Slovenian U.N. Ambassador Samuel Zbogar told reporters. He cited a record-high 100 million people driven from their homes by conflict.

“The world is becoming less stable, less peaceful, and with erosion of the respect for the rules, it is sliding into the state of disorder,” Mr. Zbogar said. “We have not seen this high need to rebuild trust to secure the future ever before.”

A key reason for the Security Council’s dysfunction is the deep division among its five veto-wielding permanent members. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, is a supporter of Ukraine alongside Britain and France. Russia invaded Ukraine and has a military and economic partnership with China, though Beijing reasserted its longstanding support for every country’s sovereignty without criticising Russia in a recent briefing paper for the U.N. meetings.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be at the United Nations this week along with Mr. Biden. But Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping are sending their Foreign Ministers instead. Neither Mr. Putin nor Mr. Xi attended last year, either.

Mr. Guterres, who will preside over the whole affair this week, warned that the world is seeing “a multiplication of conflicts and the sense of impunity” — a landscape where, he said, “any country or any military entity, militias, whatever, feel that they can do whatever they want because nothing will happen to them.”

“And the fact that nobody takes even seriously the capacity of the powers to solve problems on the ground,” he said, “makes the level of impunity (on) an enormous level.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an Indian community event, in New York, USA, Sunday (September 22, 2024)
| Photo Credit: PTI

Prime Minister Modi held separate talks with world leaders including his Nepalese counterpart K.P. Sharma Oli, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, discussing various facets of bilateral ties and reaffirming India’s support for the Palestinian people.

Mr. Modi is in New York on the second leg of his three-day U.S. visit and met the leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.

“Had a very good meeting with Prime Minister KP Oli in New York. The India-Nepal friendship is very robust and we look forward to adding even more momentum to our ties. Our talks focused on issues such as energy, technology and trade,” Mr. Modi said in a post on X.

“Deepening the warm and close friendship. PM @narendramodi met PM @kpsharmaoli of Nepal, on the sidelines of the UNGA today,” the official account of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a post on X.

“The two leaders discussed matters of mutual interest to strengthen cooperation in all areas of age-old, multi-faceted and expanding – partnership,” it added.

Mr. Oli is in the U.S. on his maiden foreign visit to attend the 79th Session of the UNGA, breaking the tradition of visiting a neighbouring country first.

“Had a fruitful meeting with the Prime Minister of India Shri @narendramodi ji on the sidelines of #UNGA79. During the meeting, various matters of bilateral relations were discussed,” Mr. Oli said in a post on X.

Mr. Modi met with Palestine’s President Mr. Abbas and reiterated India’s support for the Palestinian people.

“PM @narendramodi met H.E. Mahmoud Abbas, President of Palestine, on the sidelines of UNGA today,” the MEA said in an X post.

“Prime Minister expressed deep concern at the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza and the deteriorating security situation in the region and reaffirmed India’s unwavering support to the people of Palestine, including continued humanitarian assistance,” said MEA.

PM Modi also met Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al Sabah and discussed ways to deepen “historical linkages” and “people-to-people contacts”.

“Taking new strides in India-Kuwait ties. PM @narendramodi met HH Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, Crown Prince of the State of Kuwait today, on the sidelines of UNGA. The leaders reviewed – bilateral relations and discussed ways to further strengthen our historical linkages and strong people to people contacts,” the MEA said in a separate post on X.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Modi interacted with the top tech leaders and CEOs of the U.S. in a roundtable conference.

He addressed the Indian diaspora at the packed Nassau Veterans Coliseum on Long Island in New York before it.

Mr. Modi reached New York on Sunday (September 22, 2024) after attending the Quad Leaders’ Summit hosted by President Joe Biden in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday (September 21, 2024). In Wilmington, he also held bilateral talks with Biden, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

(With inputs from PTI)

New York:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at Lotte New York Palace Hotel in New York on Sunday.

The Prime Minister expressed “deep concern” at the humanitarian situation in Gaza and reaffirmed India’s continued support to the Palestinian people.

“PM @narendramodimet H.E. Mahmoud Abbas, President of Palestine, on the sidelines of UNGA today. PM expressed deep concern at the humanitarian situation in Gaza and reaffirmed India’s continued support to the people of Palestine,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated in a post on X.

PM @narendramodi met H.E. Mahmoud Abbas, President of Palestine, on the sidelines of UNGA today.

PM expressed deep concern at the humanitarian situation in Gaza and reaffirmed ’s continued support to the people of Palestine. pic.twitter.com/6SvSBBds0x

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) September 23, 2024

Notably, India has long weighed for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

PM Modi was one of the first global leaders to condemn the horrific terror attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, but India has repeatedly expressed concerns over the deteriorating situation in Gaza.

India also sent humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza as part of its commitment. In July, India released the first instalment of 2.5 million dollars to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, for Palestine refugees for the year 2024-25.

Prior to this, PM Modi also held bilateral meetings with Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Kuwait Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah.

Along with Kuwait’s Crown Prince, PM Modi reviewed India-Kuwait bilateral relations and discussed ways to further strengthen our historical linkages and strong people-to-people contacts.

https://x.com/MEAIndia/status/1838007690779378051

During his meeting with PM Oli, Prime Minister Modi discussed matters of mutual interest to strengthen cooperation in all areas of the age-old, multi-faceted and expanding India-Nepal partnership.

https://x.com/MEAIndia/status/1838006931656507810

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Modi interacted with the top tech leaders and CEOs of the USA, in a Roundtable hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) School of Engineering, in New York today.

PM Modi emphasized India’s growth prospects and discussed initiatives to foster collaborations and innovation across diverse sectors, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated.

PM Modi arrived in New York in the second leg of his three-day visit to the United States. On Saturday, PM Modi took part in the Quad Summit and held bilateral meetings with US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

The Prime Minister addressed a huge gathering of the Indian diaspora at the Nassau Coliseum in New York on Sunday.

He will also address the ‘Summit of the Future’ at the UN General Assembly in New York today.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

In the Security Council vote on April 18, the Palestinians got much more support for full U.N. membership. The vote was 12 in favor, the United Kingdom and Switzerland abstaining. 
| Photo Credit: AP

The U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) is expected to vote on May 10 on a resolution that would grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and call on the Security Council to favourably reconsider its request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

The United States vetoed a widely backed council resolution on April 18 that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine, a goal the Palestinians have long sought and Israel has worked to prevent, and U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood made clear on Thursday that Joe Biden administration is opposed to the Assembly resolution.

Under the U.N. Charter, prospective members of the United Nations must be “peace-loving,” and the Security Council must recommend their admission to the General Assembly for final approval. Palestine became a U.N. non-member observer state in 2012.

“We’ve been very clear from the beginning there is a process for obtaining full membership in the United Nations, and this effort by some of the Arab countries and the Palestinians is to try to go around that,” Mr. Wood said on Thursday. “We have said from the beginning the best way to ensure Palestinian full membership in the U.N. is to do that through negotiations with Israel. That remains our position.”

But unlike the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the 193-member General Assembly and the resolution is expected to be approved by a large majority, according to three Western diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations were private.

The draft resolution “determines” that a state of Palestine is qualified for membership – dropping the original language that in the General Assembly’s judgment it is “a peace-loving state.” It therefore recommends that the Security Council reconsider its request “favourably.”

The renewed push for full Palestinian membership in the U.N. comes as the war in Gaza has put the more than 75-year-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict at center stage. At numerous council and assembly meetings, the humanitarian crisis facing the Palestinians in Gaza and the killing of more than 34,000 people in the territory, according to Gaza health officials, have generated outrage from many countries.

“The original draft of the assembly resolution was changed significantly to address concerns not only by the U.S. but also by Russia and China,” the diplomats said.

The first draft would have conferred on Palestine “the rights and privileges necessary to ensure its full and effective participation” in the assembly’s sessions and U.N. conferences “on equal footing with member states.” It also made no reference to whether Palestine could vote in the General Assembly.

According to the diplomats, Russia and China which are strong supporters of Palestine’s U.N. membership were concerned that granting the list of rights and privileges detailed in an annex to the resolution could set a precedent for other would-be U.N. members — with Russia concerned about Kosovo and China about Taiwan.

Under longstanding legislation by the U.S. Congress, the United States is required to cut off funding to U.N. agencies that give full membership to a Palestinian state – which could mean a cutoff in dues and voluntary contributions to the U.N. from its largest contributor.

The final draft drops the language that would put Palestine “on equal footing with member states.” And to address Chinese and Russian concerns, it would decide “on an exceptional basis and without setting a precedent” to adopt the rights and privileges in the annex.

The draft also adds a provision in the annex on the issue of voting, stating categorically: “The state of Palestine, in its capacity as an observer state, does not have the right to vote in the General Assembly or to put forward its candidature to United Nations organs.”

The final list of rights and privileges in the draft annex includes giving Palestine the right to speak on all issues not just those related to the Palestinians and Middle East, the right to propose agenda items and reply in debates and the right to be elected as officers in the assembly’s main committees. It would give the Palestinians the right to participate in U.N. and international conferences convened by the United Nations — but it drops their “right to vote” which was in the original draft.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas first delivered the Palestinian Authority’s application for U.N. membership in 2011. It failed because the Palestinians didn’t get the required minimum support of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members.

They went to the General Assembly and succeeded by more than a two-thirds majority in having their status raised from a U.N. observer to a non-member observer state. That opened the door for the Palestinian territories to join U.N. and other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court.

In the Security Council vote on April 18, the Palestinians got much more support for full U.N. membership. The vote was 12 in favor, the United Kingdom and Switzerland abstaining, and the United States voting no and vetoing the resolution.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appoints Mohammad Mustafa as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank March 14, 2024 in this handout image. Credit: Palestinian president office/Handout via REUTERS
| Photo Credit: VIA REUTERS

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed his longtime economic adviser to be the next prime minister in the face of U.S. pressure to reform the Palestinian Authority as part of Washington’s postwar vision for Gaza.

Mohammad Mustafa, a United States-educated economist and political independent, will head a technocratic government in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that could potentially administer Gaza ahead of eventual statehood. But those plans face major obstacles, including strong opposition from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israel-Hamas war that is still grinding on with no end in sight.

It’s unclear whether the appointment of a new Cabinet led by a close Abbas ally would be sufficient to meet U.S. demands for reform, as the 88-year-old president would remain in overall control.

“The change that the United States of America and the countries of the region want is not necessarily the change that the Palestinian citizen wants,” said Hani al-Masri, a Palestinian political analyst. “People want a real change in politics, not a change in names. … They want elections.”

He said Mr. Mustafa is “a respected and educated man” but will struggle to meet public demands to improve conditions in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli restrictions imposed since the start of the war have caused an economic crisis.

In a statement announcing the appointment, Mr. Abbas asked Mr. Mustafa to put together plans to re-unify administration in the West Bank and Gaza, lead reforms in the government, security services and economy and fight corruption.

Washington welcomed his appointment but urged Mr. Mustafa to quickly form a Cabinet to implement changes.

“The United States will be looking for this new government to deliver on policies and implementation of credible and far-reaching reforms. A reformed Palestinian Authority is essential to delivering results for the Palestinian people and establishing the conditions for stability in both the West Bank and Gaza,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said.

Mr. Mustafa was born in the West Bank town of Tulkarem in 1954 and earned a doctorate in business administration and economics from George Washington University. He has held senior positions at the World Bank and previously served as deputy prime minister and economy minister. He is currently the chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund.

The previous prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, resigned along with his government last month, saying different arrangements were needed because of the “new reality in the Gaza Strip.”

The Palestinian Authority was established in the 1990s through interim peace agreements and was envisioned as a stepping-stone to eventual statehood.

But the peace talks repeatedly collapsed, most recently with Netanyahu’s return to power in 2009. Hamas seized power in Gaza from forces loyal to Mr. Abbas in 2007, confining his limited authority to major population centers that account for around 40% of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Mr. Abbas is deeply unpopular among Palestinians, many of whom view the PA as little more than a subcontractor of the occupation because it cooperates with Israel on security matters. His mandate ended in 2009 but he has refused to hold elections, blaming Israeli restrictions. Hamas won a landslide victory in the last parliamentary elections, in 2006. Although it is considered a terrorist group by Israel and Western countries, Hamas would likely perform well in any free and fair vote.

Mr. Abbas, unlike his Hamas rivals, recognizes Israel, has renounced armed struggle and is committed to a negotiated solution that would create an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. That goal is shared by the international community.

Israel has long criticized the PA over payments it makes to the families of Palestinians who have been killed or imprisoned by Israel, including top militants who killed Israelis. The PA defends such payments as a form of social welfare for families harmed by the decades-old conflict.

The dispute has led Israel to suspend some of the taxes and customs duties it collects on behalf of the PA, contributing to years of budget shortfalls. The PA pays the salaries of tens of thousands of teachers, health workers and other civil servants.

The United States has called for a reformed PA to expand its writ to postwar Gaza ahead of the eventual creation of a Palestinian state in both territories. Netanyahu has ruled out any role for the PA in Gaza, and his government is opposed to Palestinian statehood.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and considers the entire city — including major holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims — to be its undivided capital. Israel has built scores of settlements across the West Bank, where over 500,000 Jewish settlers live in close proximity to some 3 million Palestinians.

Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but along with Egypt imposed a blockade on the territory when Hamas seized power two years later.

Mr. Netanyahu has vowed to dismantle Hamas and maintain open-ended security control over Gaza in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage. Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.

The Palestinian Authority has said it will not return to Gaza on the back of an Israeli tank, and that it would only assume control of the territory as part of a comprehensive solution to the conflict that includes statehood.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh says his government is resigning, in a move that could open the door to U.S.-backed reforms in the Palestinian Authority.

President Mahmoud Abbas must still decide whether he accepts Mr. Shtayyeh’s and his government’s resignation, tendered on February 26.

But the move signals a willingness by the Western-backed Palestinian leadership to accept shake-up that might usher in reforms seen as necessary to revitalize the Palestinian Authority.

The U.S. wants a reformed Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza once the war is over. But many obstacles remain to making that vision a reality.