Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is willing to consider assuming control of the Gaza Strip through his administration in Ramallah, but he insists on the condition of a "comprehensive peace initiative" with Israel. This information was relayed by a Palestinian official to The Times of Israel.
The official stated that Abbas communicated this position to the administration of US President Joe Biden amid the escalation of hostilities around the Gaza Strip. In light of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks expressing Israel's lack of concern regarding who governs Gaza after the Israeli military operation against the Palestinian Hamas movement, US authorities have been exploring various scenarios and have inquired with Abbas and his advisors about the Palestinian administration's readiness to assume control of the coastal enclave.
In response to inquiries from Biden's envoys, Abbas reportedly expressed his unwillingness to return to Gaza through any involvement of Israeli forces, as stated by a Palestinian official speaking to The Times of Israel. Instead, Abbas demanded that Israel publicly declare its willingness to recognize an independent Palestinian state encompassing the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. According to the newspaper, Biden's team acknowledges that the potential return of Gaza to the administration led by Abbas is a complex and protracted process. Nonetheless, contacts on this matter are said to be ongoing, albeit in the early stages.
The Gaza Strip is a Palestinian enclave located between Israel and Egypt, stretching for 40 kilometers along the Mediterranean coast. It is officially recognized as one of the two constituent parts of the State of Palestine, alongside the West Bank. Following the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel took control of Gaza, a situation that persisted until 2005 when Israel unilaterally withdrew its troops and forcibly evacuated Israeli settlements, while retaining authority over the Strip's territorial waters and airspace.
Control over the territory was subsequently transferred to the Palestinian National Authority under Abbas, which also holds partial authority in the West Bank. In 2007, the Hamas movement assumed control over the Gaza Strip, where it remains in power to this day.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS