Qatar PM wants Palestinian Authority to return to Gaza after war ends Gaza News

Sheikh Mohammed said the Palestinians in Gaza - not any other country - should decide how the enclave is governed.

Qatar's prime minister has said he hopes the Palestinian Authority (PA) can resume its governance role in Gaza after the Israeli war ends.

Israel launched war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after Hamas launched attacks in southern Israel that killed at least 1,139 people, mostly civilians, according to Al Jazeera, based on Israeli data.

Israel's violent 15-month assault on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 47,000 people and destroyed much of the area's civilian infrastructure, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel has severely restricted aid supplies to the territory, prompting warnings of a humanitarian crisis.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani was speaking at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, two days after a ceasefire that Qatar helped broker The agreement enters into force in Gaza.

The prime minister has warned that the Palestinians in Gaza - not any other country - should decide how the enclave is governed.

"We want to see the Palestinian Authority return to Gaza. We want to see a government that can actually solve the problems of the people there. Gaza and destruction still have a long way to go," he said.

“Waste of time”

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed said Qatar was sorry for the time wasted between Israel and Hamas.

"As we look at and reflect on what has been accomplished over the past few days, we deeply regret all the time that was wasted in these negotiations," he said.

"We have seen that the framework that we agreed on in December is a framework that was implemented a few days ago, and ... I'm talking about December 23, which means just one year of detailed negotiations," the Prime Minister said.

He added that this included "something that is meaningless compared to the lives of the people they lost".

The agreement between Israel and Hamas does not directly discuss how Gaza will be governed after the war. Hamas is the Palestinian group that governed Gaza before the war.

The ceasefire agreement between the two sides was brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States and included a truce, the exchange of Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, and an increase in the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Israel rejects any governance role for Hamas, but it also opposes the rule of the Palestinian Authority, a body established three decades ago under the Oslo interim peace accords that limits governance powers in parts of the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority, dominated by the Fatah faction founded by former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, faces opposition from rival faction Hamas, which won elections and in 2007 after a brief war Kicked the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza.