Palestinian unity government to resign very soon

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas has announced that his government will be dissolved within the next 24 hours, Fatah officials say.

“Within 24 hours the Palestinian government will resign,” several senior officials of Abbas’ Fatah movement quoted him as saying at the 15th Fatah Revolutionary Council conference held in the West Bank city of Ramallah late on Tuesday.

The inability to exert authority in the besieged and war-torn Gaza Strip has been cited as the main point of dispute between Fatah and Hamas and the reason for the resignation of the first Palestinian unity government, forged by the two rival movements in June 2014.

“The government will resign in the next 24 hours because this one is weak and there is no chance that Hamas will allow it to work in Gaza," Amin Maqbul, the secretary general of the Revolutionary Council, which serves as the Fatah’s legislative body, told AFP.

Maqbul further stated that the new government would form within 24 hours, but an unnamed attendee at the conference said it would take several days.

Hamas and Fatah have been at odds since Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006. The dispute marginalized Hamas governance to the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip. Fatah, meanwhile, set up headquarters in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank.

Hamas and Fatah agreed to end their disputes and reconcile in April 2014. The move angered Tel Aviv which responded by ending the so-called peace talks with the Palestinian Authority.