Hamas will dissolve its own authority in Gaza to make way for a new governing panel established by the Board of Peace, according to multiple reports.
Anonymous officials from the Gaza-based terrorist group announced the dissolution to AFP on Monday after preliminary reports swirled late Sunday evening. The officials confirmed that the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, created by President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, would fill the power vacuum in the Gaza Strip.
“The movement has decided to dissolve the Gaza government committee and to appoint a nationally accepted figure to oversee the committee’s work until the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza formally assumes its responsibilities,” a Hamas official anonymously told AFP.
The Board of Peace announced the creation of the NCAG in January as a committee composed of Palestinian technocrats that would take over governing Gaza once Hamas left the strip. There are 13 commissioners named on the committee’s website as its leadership team, with Ali Shaath, a civil engineer, set to be the committee’s chief commissioner.
The transition will mark a major shift for the civilians in the Gaza Strip, who have been under Hamas’s governance since 2007, when the group forcibly took full control of the region from Fatah.
The implementation of the NCAG as the governing body of Gaza came as the second phase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan, along with Hamas’s disarmament and a withdrawal of the Israeli military from the strip, which has been stalled for several months. Hamas had initially announced in mid-January that it planned to take the steps to dissolve its authority in Gaza once the NCAG took control of the strip.
1,000 DAYS AFTER OCT. 7, ISRAEL’S MILITARY SUCCESSES COME AT THE COST OF GLOBAL ISOLATION
Hamas’s refusal to disarm has been the sticking point for why the NCAG has not fully assumed control of the region yet, with the NCAG saying in a May statement that its main focus remains, during disarmament negotiations, “centered on accelerating relief efforts, restoring essential services, and laying the groundwork for recovery and reconstruction, within the framework of Palestinian unity.”
According to multiple reports, Hamas is expected to hold a press conference on its dissolution on Monday.