PA calls for immediate ‘retake’ of Gaza

Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah called for the immediate implementation of PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ plan to “retake” the Gaza Strip, Safa news agency reported yesterday.

In a statement for the weekly meeting of his government, Hamdallah reiterated that he is ready to run the ministries and government departments in Gaza.

Hamas, which won general elections in 2006 and which has headed the government in the coastal enclave since mid-2007, conceded all of its powers to the national unity government in 2014, but this government had not yet started its work in Gaza.

Read: Official: Fatah refused to take control of Gaza from Hamas

After several calls by Hamas on the PA to take control of the Gaza Strip, the PA and Fatah leaders, including Abbas, said that when Hamas lays down its arms, the PA and Fatah will go back to Gaza.

Last Week, senior Fatah official in West Bank Jamal Mohsin said: “All the preconditions to sit with Hamas or go back to Gaza are not real. The real issue is that Hamas has to lay down its arms, then, we are ready to go to Gaza and site with Hamas.”

Early this week, Adnan Al-Damir, a senior security official in West Bank, said: “If Hamas lays down its arms, we go to Gaza and protect it and its leaders.”

Speaking in Gaza yesterday, Hamas member Salah Bardawil said his movement had offered to hand over the government of the Gaza Strip to the PA however Fatah had refused to take control.