Palestinian national unity government submits resignation to Abbas, angering Hamas

The Palestinian government officially submitted its resignation to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday, a move thought to be part of a bid to pressure and further isolate the president's Hamas rivals. 

"The government of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah submitted on Tuesday its resignation to President Mahmud Abbas," official news agency Wafa said in English following a cabinet meeting.

The statement said the government will remain in place while a new administration is formed.

Analysts see the change in government as an attempt by Abbas to strengthen his position and further isolate his political rivals Hamas as a decade-long split in Palestinian politics deepens.

Hamdallah had offered to resign Monday, after the central committee of Abbas's Fatah movement recommended the formation of a new government that would comprise members of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

The Islamist movement Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, is not part of the PLO.

Hamas condemned the government's resignation, saying Abbas was seeking to establish a "separatist government" to serve his interests.

The movement seized control of Gaza from Abbas' forces in a 2007 near civil war, a year after winning parliamentary elections.

Since the PA have maintained limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, but the split between the two has remained.

In June 2014, Hamdallah formed what was labelled a national unity government after a landmark reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas.

The deal has since broken down and the government has no control in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Abbas was elected in 2005 for an initial four-year term but no elections have been held since then due to the Fatah-Hamas split.

Abbas in December said he would dissolve the Palestinian Legislative Council, a move seen as intended to weaken Hamas which holds a majority of the seats in the council.

Hamas denounced Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' plan to dissolve the largely defunct Palestinian parliament that it controls, calling it a move to "serve his partisan interests".