As Palestinians agree to let technocrat committee run Gaza, an appeal for Marwan Barghouti’s release
The main Palestinian factions have said they have agreed that an independent committee of technocrats would take over the running of Gaza after Hamas said it had received “clear guarantees” from mediators that “the war has effectively ended”.
A joint statement published on the Hamas website said the groups had agreed in a meeting in Cairo to hand “over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a temporary Palestinian committee composed of independent ‘technocrats’, which will manage the affairs of life and basic services in cooperation with Arab brothers and international institutions”.
The statement also called for a meeting to “agree on a national strategy and to revitalise the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”. Hamas is not part of the PLO, which is dominated by its longtime rival Fatah.
It comes as the wife of the Palestinians’ most popular leader, Marwan Barghouti, appealed on Friday to Donald Trump to intervene for her husband’s release from an Israeli jail, after the US President said he would “make a decision” on the matter. [Continue reading…]