Palestinian PM Mohammad Shtayyeh resigns over 'Gaza genocide' amid talks of unity government

The Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mohammad Shtayyeh submitted on Monday his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas over the continued genocide in Gaza.

Shtayyeh's government will function as a caretaker government until a technocratic government is formed, sources told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

"President Mahmoud Abbas accepted Shtayyeh's resignation," sources added.

Shtayyeh announced in a statement at the start of a cabinet session held in the city of Ramallah that he had submitted the resignation of the government to the president last Tuesday, and submitted it in writing on Monday.

"The decision to resign came in light of the unprecedented escalation in the West Bank and Jerusalem and the war, genocide and starvation in the Gaza Strip," Shtayyeh said.

"I see that the next stage and its challenges require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the new reality in Gaza and the need for a Palestinian-Palestinian consensus based on Palestinian unity and the extension of unity of authority over the land of Palestine."

The resignation came as US pressure grows on Abbas to shake up the Palestinian Authority (PA) and begin work on a political structure that can govern a Palestinian state after the war on Gaza.

The PA government rules parts of the occupied West Bank, while Hamas has ruled in the Gaza Strip for 17 years after ousting security services loyal to the authority from the enclave. 

Western and some Arab states have made it clear that they want to see a revitalised Palestinian Authority – which President Abbas has run since 2005 - take charge in Gaza once the Gaza conflict is over, unifying its administration with the West Bank.