Qatar’s Prime Minister said in Davos on Tuesday he hoped the Palestinian Authority would return to play a governing role in Gaza once the war with Israel comes to an end.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Switzerland, two days after the ceasefire Qatar helped broker came into effect in Gaza, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani cautioned that Gazans — and not any other country — should dictate the way the enclave will be governed.
“We hope to see the PA back in Gaza. We hope to see a government that will really address the issues of the people over there. And there is a long way to go with Gaza and the destruction,” he said.
How Gaza will be governed after the war was not directly addressed in the deal between Israel and resistance group Hamas that led to an immediate ceasefire and hostage releases after nearly 15 months of talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S.
Israel has rejected any governing role for Hamas, which ran Gaza before the war, but it has been almost equally opposed to rule by the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that has limited governing power in the West Bank.
The PA, dominated by the Fatah faction created by former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, faces opposition from rival faction Hamas, which drove the PA out of Gaza in 2007 after a brief civil war.