Palestinian Authority Government Resigns

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh resigned yesterday, along with his government. PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s right-hand man since 2019, Shtayyeh claimed to have informed Abbas of his decision on February 20. Abbas accepted Shtayyeh’s resignation.

This decision comes in light of the political, security and economic developments related to the aggression against Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and the unprecedented escalation in the West Bank, including the city of Jerusalem.
—Mohammed Shtayyeh

Who will replace him? Shtayyeh will stay as caretaker prime minister until Abbas appoints a new government. Some analysts suspect Mohammed Mustafa, chairman of the PA’s sovereign wealth fund, is a likely candidate.

‘Revitalized’ Palestinian Authority? As Israel comes close to concluding its war in Gaza, what will happen “the day after” is on everybody’s mind. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week announced his plan for a post-Hamas Gaza. This would include allowing local figures to run Gaza under Israel’s overall security control.

But the international community, including the United States, wants the PA to take over Gaza. The PA currently rules over part of the West Bank but also claims jurisdiction over Gaza.

The PA was supposed to be a stepping-stone to a free, democratic, prosperous Palestinian state. But Abbas, in power since 2005, has turned it into a corrupt, autocratic personal fiefdom. Some claim the PA can be “revitalized” to govern Gaza. The resignations are probably Abbas’s attempt to give the PA a palatable makeover.

Yet Abbas’s Fatah faction took part in the October 7 massacre that killed roughly 1,200 Israelis. And Shtayyeh, in his resignation speech, claimed Israel was launching a “ferocious and unprecedented attack [and] genocide” against the Palestinian people. These are hardly the words or actions of a changed government.

What next? The Palestinian political scene is facing seismic shifts. The Trumpet expects Palestinian politics to become even more volatile.

At the end of the day, whoever is in power among the Palestinians, there will be no peace in the Middle East as long as there are groups agitating for Israel’s destruction. The Palestinians are clearly not interested in making peace with Israel! But Israel is so war-weary and blinded by wishful thinking that it won’t face reality! Its naiveté is leading it into a disaster of untold magnitude. It is easy to see why God calls the peace process a “deadly wound.”
—Gerald Flurry, Trumpet editor in chief, Jerusalem in Prophecy