Abbas forces 12 West Bank, Gaza governors into retirement

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas attends the commemoration ceremony of 75th anniversary of Israel’s declaration of independence, which Palestinians call the Great Catastrophe (Nakba), and its forced migration of Palestinians at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States on May 15, 2023 [Selçuk Acar – Anadolu Agency]

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday issued a presidential decree referring 12 governors in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip to retirement.

The decision included the governors of Jenin, Nablus, Qalqilya, Tulkarm, Bethlehem, Hebron, Tubas, Jericho and the Jordan Valley in the occupied West bank and the governors of North Gaza, Gaza City, Khan Yunis and Rafah in the besieged and occupied Gaza Strip.

Abbas also issued a presidential decree to form a presidential committee, commissioned with selecting candidates for the vacant governorships and “recommending them to the President for final decision”.

The decision excluded the governors of Ramallah, Al-Bireh and Salfit in the West Bank and central Gaza Strip whose governor, Abdullah Abu Samhadana, died in 2020 but no replacement has been appointed.

READ: Palestinian leaders discuss efforts to break siege on Gaza Strip

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.