After 20-year-rule, Hamas dissolves Gaza govt, clearing way for technocratic committee to administer strip

After 20 years ruling over the Gaza Strip, Hamas dissolved its government on Monday, the movement announced in a statement . The head of Hamas’s government emergency committee and the government follow up committee is stepping down, and the emergency committee is being dissolved. Hamas said it took a “decisive and strategic” step to fulfill its national obligation to hand over the administration of Gaza to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and to ease the suffering of the people caused by the ongoing genocide, delays in reconstruction, the continuing siege and border closures as well as Israel’s failure to withdraw from the strip. Before the announcement of the dissolution, Hamas presented handover arrangements for the national committee to a national team representing Palestinian factions and forces, the Higher Committee of Clans and Tribes and civil society organizations, in the presence of the United Nations’ observer representative, the Hamas government media office said. However, the national committee, a technocratic government formed in January on the back of United States President Donald Trump’s “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict,” which was later endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution , will not be able to take up the handover immediately as it continues to be blocked by Israel from entering the strip. Palestinian analysts told Mada Masr that the move to dissolve the government aims to try to break the stagnation that has prevailed in Gaza for months and allow the committee to take up work. But betting on a breakthrough does not mean that it will happen yet. Acknowledging the potential administrative or technical vacuum the dissolution decision could create, Hamas said its dissolved government’s technical and administrative staff will continue performing their duties All personnel involved in providing services are “state employees” who stand fully ready to work under the authority of the national committee and adhere to its directives and decisions, according to Hamas’s statement. Gaza’s central and local emergency committees serve as a substitute for the Government Follow-up Committee — Gaza’s cabinet — during emergencies, Israeli military escalations and wartime, Government Media Office General Director Ismail al-Thawabta previously told the press. Emergency committees are “an extension of the government body, and those working in it are government employees. In times of peace and calm, ministries operate normally. But during wars, these ministries stop operating, and these committees, formed from ministry personnel, are then tasked with managing government operations and delivering public services,” Thawabta added at the time. Announcing the dissolution of the follow-up committee is “a step toward stirring the stagnant waters and a reflection of a transitional phase, and Hamas’s serious wish to hand over the reins of governance to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza,” Sharhabil al-Gharib, a political analyst and writer from Gaza, told Mada Masr. In a statement after commitment members met with Board of Peace representatives in Larnaca last week, the committee acknowledged the delay to its activation. “We are committed to the Comprehensive Plan and are prepared to take all the necessary steps, in coordination with the Board of Peace and the Office of the High Representative, in order for [the national administration committee] to assume its responsibilities once the right conditions are met,” the statement read. For Gharib, the move shifts responsibility to mediators to exert pressure to ensure the committee is allowed to enter Gaza and fully assume its duties. The resignation of the head of the government follow-up committee should not be viewed as “merely an administrative measure,” Gharib argued. Rather, it appears to signal Gaza’s leadership is prepared to move from a phase of understandings and promises to one of actual implementation, placing everyone before a new obligation to implement the plan, he added. The US administration must now demonstrate its ability to turn its commitments into concrete action on the ground, the analyst added. Either a genuine implementation phase begins, he added, or there will be another round of delays similar to previous stages. The post After 20-year-rule, Hamas dissolves Gaza govt, clearing way for technocratic committee to administer strip first appeared on Mada Masr .