The Israeli army expands its operations in Gaza and deploys additional forces

Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said the Palestinian Authority would not return to governing Gaza without a comprehensive agreement that includes the annexation of the West Bank into a unified Palestinian state.

Israeli civilian and military officials have said that their plan to end the Gaza war is to establish some form of transitional authority to govern the region, possibly including Arab countries, which would bring the Palestinian Authority back to Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas since 2007.

But Shtayyeh, prime minister since 2019, said the Palestinian Authority will not cooperate in this regard without the implementation of a true peace process leading to the creation of two sovereign states.

The Palestinian prime minister declared, during an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian: “If we go back to governing Gaza and managing its affairs without finding a political solution for the West Bank, we will look like we are entering the Gaza Strip on board an F-16 plane or an Israeli tank!”

He added: “I don’t accept it, and our president Mahmoud Abbas doesn’t accept it. “None of us will accept this.”

In the interview conducted with him in his office in Ramallah in the West Bank, Shtayyeh underlined: “I believe that what we need is a global and peaceful vision. The West Bank needs a solution, after which Gaza should be connected to it within the framework of the two-state solution.”

Shtayyeh said the first priority is to stop the bombing of Gaza, as well as the violence in the West Bank, where he said 110 Palestinians have been killed in the past three weeks by security forces and Israeli settlers.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the death toll had exceeded 8,000. US President Joe Biden has questioned the accuracy of these numbers, but Shtayyeh said the toll was verified with names and identification numbers.

After three weeks of aerial bombardment, Israel launched a ground attack on Gaza last Friday, an attack that Israeli officials said they expected would be long and drawn out.

Shtayyeh stressed that Israel’s need for someone else to govern Gaza, instead of Hamas, gives the international community an impetus to reflect on the need to return to the two-state solution, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has systematically addressed during his mandate. .

He continued: “The question everyone should ask, whether Palestinian, Israeli, American or European, is how can we make this catastrophe an opportunity for peace?”

The Palestinian prime minister criticized Biden’s position on the Palestinian issue, underlining that among the American presidents who have taken office in recent decades he is the only one who has not developed a peace initiative in the Middle East.

He added: “He didn’t even appoint a peace envoy and made promises that were never kept. He says he opposes the agreements, but what did he do?! Continue funding Israel. He says he is for the two-state solution, but Israel faces the issue every day, without any reaction from Biden. He said she would reopen the American consulate in Jerusalem…and now his term will end without him doing so!”

He continued: “I believe that now is the right time for the American president and Europe to confirm their willingness to reach a comprehensive, and not partial, solution to the Palestinian question.”

Such a comprehensive solution, according to Shtayyeh, would include holding Palestinian elections in Gaza and the West Bank and the Israeli government abandoning Netanyahu.

Anger is also growing in the West Bank towards the Palestinian Authority, which has long faced accusations of corruption and nepotism.

After the start of the last war, many Palestinians accused it of weakness and inability to defend them.

Shtayyeh insisted that the Palestinian Authority will never abandon its opposition to the use of violence in order to regain its popularity.

He explained: “Abbas can gain widespread popularity in a minute. He can say: Well, I order the Palestinian security forces to shoot the Israelis. But he is a realistic man”.

However, Shtayyeh acknowledged that anger is rapidly growing among Palestinians, that the situation in the West Bank is “boiling” and has become “very dangerous,” leaving the Palestinian Authority stuck between an angry population and a violent Israeli government.

He added: “We are stuck between a rock and a hard place.”