France, Egypt, Jordan say Palestinian Authority must head post-war Gaza

CAIRO: The leaders of France, Egypt and Jordan on Monday said the Palestinian Authority must head post-war governance in Gaza.

The question of who will rule the Palestinian territory has been one of the main sticking points in efforts to prolong a ceasefire in Gaza that collapsed last month.

On a visit to Cairo where he met his counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as well as Jordan’s King Abdullah II, French President Emmanuel Macron said Palestinian militant group Hamas should have no role in governing the Gaza Strip once its war with Israel is over.

“Governance, law and order, and security in Gaza, as well as in all Palestinian territories, must be the sole responsibility of a strengthened Palestinian Authority,” the three heads of state said in a joint statement.

Macron said he was strongly opposed to any displacement of Palestinians, throwing his weight behind a Gaza reconstruction plan endorsed by the Arab League to counter a US proposal to send the war-ravaged territory’s inhabitants elsewhere.

Speaking alongside Sisi in the Egyptian capital, Macron hailed his government’s “crucial work on this plan, which offers a realistic path to the reconstruction of Gaza and should also pave the way for new Palestinian governance” in the territory.

The Palestinian Authority is dominated by Hamas’s rival party Fatah and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where it has partial administrative control of some areas.

“Hamas must have no role in this governance (of Gaza), and must no longer constitute a threat to Israel,” Macron said.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and strongly rejected any future role for the Islamist group in the Gaza Strip after its unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war, now in its 19th month.

Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007.

Though the group signalled it would be willing to leave administrative and civil matters to a group of Palestinian technocrats, it has not committed to giving up its arms.

After a two-month truce, Israel resumed intense bombardment across the Gaza Strip and restarted ground operations, killing at least 1,391 Palestinians since March 18, according to the territory’s health ministry.

At their Cairo meeting, the three leaders called for an “immediate return” to the ceasefire.

Egypt along with Qatar and the United States brokered the January truce. The deal collapsed when Israel sought to extend its first phase but Hamas insisted on talks for a second phase, as originally outlined by then-US president Joe Biden.

King Abdullah joined Macron and Sisi for a summit on the war and humanitarian efforts to alleviate the suffering of Gaza’s 2.4 million people.

Israel cut off aid to Gaza more than a month ago during the truce impasse.