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The PA Returning to Gaza? It Can't Even Control the West Bank

(Times of Israel) Nurit Yohanan - Mahmoud Abbas, 88, now in his 19th year as head of the Palestinian Authority, is regarded by the Biden administration as the preferred choice to govern Gaza on the "day after" the war. Multiple surveys in recent years have shown that 2/3 of Palestinians want him out of office. Two decades after the PA was brutally expelled by Hamas from Gaza, its capacity for governance is fast declining in the West Bank. Over the last two years, armed groups affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations have accrued growing power in the northern West Bank - especially in Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarem. The PA's security forces do not operate in parts of these cities, which are controlled by armed militias. A recent rare arrest of a Hamas member by PA security forces in Nablus triggered 24 hours of chaos, with crowds of Palestinians blocking streets and throwing stones at PA forces. It's hard to imagine how the same PA security forces could return to Gaza and reassert genuine control. The PA does continue to pay the salaries of 40,000 Gazans, but most of them are middle-aged ex-government officials, with questionable loyalty after long years under Hamas rule. The writer is a Palestinian affairs reporter at Israel's Channel 11.
2024-06-06 00:00:00
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