Hamas offers to hand over authority in Gaza to US-backed administration

Hamas has announced its intention to hand over governing authority in Gaza after two decades in power, and has invited a US-backed interim administration to take over the running of the Palestinian territory.

Mohammed al-Farra, the head of the Hamas administration, announced his resignation and the handover of power to NCAG. He suggested that Hamas would end its political direction of Gaza governance immediately but that civil servants and public workers would remain in their jobs in a professional capacity pending NCAG’s arrival.

The Trump administration has given backing to the plan for which officials have variously referred to as a “humanitarian city”, “alternative safe communities”, or “New Rafah” – but which the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has called a “concentration camp”.

While announcing that it was ready to hand over security as part of a transition, the Hamas statement made no promise to disarm unilaterally as Israel and the US have demanded. The interim administration to which Hamas has offered to transfer governance, known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), has been blocked from entering Gaza by Israel since its creation in January as part of a US-brokered ceasefire, adding further doubt to the timing of any future.

Analysts said the Hamas announcement was largely a symbolic gambit aimed at reviving a stalled peace process that has blocked reconstruction and humanitarian relief for Gaza’s surviving 2.1 million population. They also said the move was designed to counter Israeli-led proposals to limit relief, reconstruction and NCAG governance to a tiny proportion of Gaza’s population in purpose-built villages in the roughly 60% of Gaza under direct Israeli army control.