Palestinian Prime Minister Shtayyeh resigns to make way for 'new political arrangements' after Israel war

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh on Monday announced he and his government are resigning.

A senior Hamas official said the move had to be followed by a broader agreement on governance for the Palestinians amid Israel's conflict against the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza.

There is growing US pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to shake up the Palestinian Authority, as international efforts have intensified to stop the fighting in Gaza and begin work on a political structure to govern the enclave after the war.

Mr Shtayyeh’s resignation must still be accepted by Mr Abbas, who may ask him to stay on as caretaker until a permanent replacement is appointed.

In a statement to cabinet, Mr Shtayyeh, an academic economist who took office in 2019, said the next stage would need to take account of the emerging reality in Gaza, which has been laid waste by nearly five months of heavy fighting.

He said it would "require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the emerging reality in the Gaza Strip, the national unity talks, and the urgent need for an inter-Palestinian consensus".

He said it would also require "the extension of the Authority's authority over the entire land, Palestine".

The Palestinian Authority, formed 30 years ago under the interim Oslo peace accords, exercises limited governance over parts of the occupied West Bank but lost power in Gaza following a struggle with Hamas in 2007.

Fatah, the faction that controls it, and Hamas have made efforts to reach an agreement over a unity government and are due to meet in Moscow on Wednesday.

"The resignation of Shtayyeh's government only makes sense if it comes within the context of national consensus on arrangements for the next phase," senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told news agency Reuters on Monday.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and says that for security reasons, it will not accept Palestinian Authority rule over Gaza after the war, which broke out following a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The October 7 attack killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, almost 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza fighting, according to Palestinian health authorities, and almost the entire population has been driven from their homes.