Day: March 15, 2024

cairo — The Islamist group Hamas on Friday criticized the “unilateral” designation by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of an ally and leading business figure as prime minister with a mandate to help reform the Palestinian Authority (PA) and rebuild Gaza. 

Mohammad Mustafa’s appointment comes after mounting pressure to overhaul the governing body of the occupied Palestinian territories and improve governance in the occupied West Bank where it is based. 

Hamas said the decision was taken without consulting it, despite the fact that it recently took part in a meeting in Moscow also attended by Abbas’ Fatah movement to end longtime divisions weakening Palestinian political aspirations. 

“We express our rejection of continuing this approach that has inflicted and continues to inflict harm on our people and our national cause,” Hamas said in a statement. 

“Making individual decisions and engaging in superficial and empty steps such as forming a new government without national consensus only reinforces a policy of unilateralism and deepens division.” 

At a time of war with Israel, Palestinians need a unified leadership preparing for free democratic elections involving all components of their society, it added.  

In the West Bank, Fatah fired back at Hamas’ criticism of Abbas, blaming it for what had befallen Gaza since it unilaterally carried out “the Oct. 7 adventure.” 

“Has Hamas consulted the Palestinian leadership as it is negotiating with Israel now and offering the concessions, in a bid to secure guarantees of its leaders’ personal safety in return?” said the Fatah statement. 

Foreign demands 

As president, Abbas remains by far the most powerful figure in the Palestinian Authority, but the appointment of a new government showed willingness to meet international demands for change in the administration. 

Mustafa, who helped organize the reconstruction of Gaza following a previous conflict, was assigned to lead the relief and rebuilding of the area, which has been shattered by more than five months of war, and reform Palestinian Authority institutions, according to the designation letter. 

He replaces former Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh who, along with his government, resigned in February. 

Arab and international efforts have so far failed to reconcile Hamas and Fatah, which makes up the backbone of the PA, since the Hamas 2007 takeover of Gaza, a move that reduced Abbas’ authority to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 

Palestinians want both territories as the core of a future independent state. 

Hamas said any attempt to exclude it from the political scene after the war was “delusional.” 

In a recent warning, a security official told a Hamas-linked news website that attempts by clans or community leaders to cooperate with Israel’s plans to administer Gaza would be seen as “treason” and met with an “iron fist.” 

But the group denied media reports it had killed some local clan leaders in recent days for meddling with aid distribution.

CAIRO — A Marshall Islands-flagged liquefied petroleum gas tanker reported two explosions near the ship as it traveled off the coast of Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, the third merchant vessel attack of the past 48 hours, British security firm Ambrey said  Friday.

The master of a merchant vessel located in a similar area reported an explosion a distance off the vessel’s starboard beam, according to United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations. Reuters was not immediately able to verify whether the same ship was the subject of the two reports.

Iran-aligned Houthi militants in Yemen have repeatedly launched drones and missiles against international commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since mid-November in professed solidarity with Palestinians against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Their attacks have disrupted global shipping, forcing firms to take longer and more expensive journeys around the southern end of Africa.

There was no damage or crew injuries reported aboard ships involved in the earlier reports.

The United States and Britain have carried out strikes against Houthi targets in response to the attacks on shipping.

Late on Thursday, the U.S. military said Houthis fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles from Yemen toward the Gulf of Aden, and to the north, two missiles toward the Red Sea, but there were no injuries or damage reported to U.S. or coalition ships.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said early on Friday that it had destroyed nine anti-ship missiles and two drones in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.