Family leaders, clan chiefs, and community dignitaries from Gaza issued urgent calls for PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the PA to reassert control over Gaza, marking a significant development in the territory’s internal politics amid the ongoing conflict.
The appeals, made public earlier this week on the PA’s official state-run news agency, Wafa, may represent a potential shift in local support for the governance of the territory. The calls, made on two different occasions, came through a dialogue meeting organized by the General Union of Palestinian Farmers and a formal declaration signed by mukhtars (community leaders) and dignitaries from the Gaza and North Gaza governorates.
During the farmers’ union meeting, the dignitaries of Palestinian families and clans in the enclave were quoted as confirming “their support for the initiative of Mahmoud Abbas to enter the Gaza Strip,” calling on the PA to assume duties there, “to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
During the meeting, Fatah Central Committee member and presidential adviser Ismail Jabr discussed the PA’s ongoing efforts to halt what the participants described as “the genocide” in Gaza, lauding Mahmoud Abbas’s recent diplomatic initiatives, including sending a delegation to Egypt to address the crisis.
In a parallel and related development, community leaders from the Gaza and North Gaza governorates issued a more formal declaration, emphasizing their perceived urgent need for the Palestinian Authority to resume its pre-2007 role in the territory.
The declaration specifically appointed Abbas, on behalf of over 100 signers, to “take all necessary measures and procedures to save our people in the Gaza Strip governorates and confront the forced displacement project planned by the occupation.”
The community leaders emphasized that their support for the PA’s return stems from the current crisis’s severity, painting a dramatic picture of Gaza as “a mass grave for children, women, and the elderly, with the aim of eliminating the manifestations of political, economic, and social life, thus making Gaza and all its governorates an uninhabitable place.”
The dignitaries’ declarations also addressed the issue of Palestinian political unity, with both groups reaffirming the Palestine Liberation Organization as “the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people wherever they are.” This statement carries particular significance given Gaza’s political separation from the West Bank since 2007, implicitly addressing the violent Hamas-led coup in the Gaza Strip.
The community leaders also expressed support for the Fatah-led Palestinian government led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, calling on it to “carry out its duties in supporting our people, in light of the difficult circumstances they are experiencing.”
These calls for the PA’s return to Gaza potentially represent a significant shift in local dynamics, coming from influential community leaders who traditionally play important roles in Gaza’s social fabric. They also specifically referenced the “continued state of Palestinian division” as a factor that has “led to the exacerbation of the crises that the Gaza Strip is going through and deepened the impact of the disaster.”
Israeli expert: ‘All in the interest of Hamas’
These coordinated calls from Gaza’s traditional leadership structures could potentially influence discussions about the territory’s future governance arrangements, particularly as various regional and international parties consider post-war scenarios for Gaza’s administration.
However, despite the fact that such calls have rarely been heard, Dr. Harel Chorev, a senior researcher at Tel Aviv University’s Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, is not at all impressed, saying these calls should only be seen as fitting with Hamas’s interest.
“One should notice that none of these statements mentions Hamas directly or defies the rival faction,” Chorev explained. “We must assume that these calls are acceptable in Hamas’s eyes and even come to serve their interests.”
Chorev recalled that several weeks ago, Hamas and Fatah representatives met in Cairo to discuss “day after” arrangements. “These included a joint, so-called ‘non-political’ committee, which Mahmoud Abbas refused to sign so far, due to the fact that the arrangement doesn’t require Hamas to give up their weapons and leaves them as the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip,” Chorev elaborated.
Despite this, Chorev qualified his remarks. “There is clearly an element of despair and a call to help, as these people live in the northern part of Gaza, where there is essentially nothing left right now in terms of infrastructure.
“These people really lost almost everything,” he continued. “But despite this, it is difficult to see a situation in which they would come out clearly against Hamas under the current situation, which would cost them a high price. So this must serve Hamas’s interests in some way.”
Chorev continued, “These calls on Mahmoud Abbas are based on that Cairo agreement, implicitly showing Abbas that they endorse it and [are] calling him to sign it as well.
“However, Abbas is not new in our neighborhood, and he knows very well that he would not want the Palestinian Authority to be a fig leaf in such an agreement, which does not deal directly with Hamas’s armament problem, essentially leaves them in power, and leaves Fatah susceptible.”