Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas meets World Jewish Congress leader, pushing bid for Ramallah to take control over the Gaza Strip after Hamas reportedly agrees to cede the area.
By World Israel News Staff
The Hamas terror organization has agreed to yield control over the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority, according to unnamed sources cited by Sky News Arabia in a report published Sunday night.
The sources claimed that Hamas had told government employees in the Gaza Strip that they will be “re-absorbed into the new administration,” run by the Palestinian Authority, “or that they would retire, with a guarantee that their salaries be paid.”
Hamas is said to have agreed to surrender control over the coastal enclave to Ramallah following intense pressure from Egypt.
The Egyptian government is said to have pressed a Hamas delegation during its recent trip to Cairo, in a bid to secure an alternative to President Donald Trump’s plan to resettle the entire population in third-party countries, including Egypt and Jordan.
The Palestinian Authority is also working to promote its rule of Gaza as an alternative to the Trump plan.
On Sunday, Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas met with World Jewish Congress President Ron Lauder in Amman, Jordan.
During their meeting, the PA mouthpiece WAFA reported, Abbas reiterated his opposition to the Trump plan, as well as to any possible transfer or mass migration of Arabs out of Judea and Samaria.
Instead, Abbas argued, Ramallah should be charged with governing the post-war Gaza Strip, and called for increased international humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, as well as aid to rebuild the coastal enclave.
The Gaza Strip was administered by the Palestinian Authority from 1994, after Israel withdrew from parts of the Strip, until Hamas seized the area in 2007, defeating Fatah loyalists.
