Hamas official says group agreed to establish technocratic committee to manage Gaza with rival Fatah

Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said that the terror group has reached an understanding with Fatah and other Palestinian factions regarding the formation of a committee of technocrats to administer the Gaza Strip and the deployment of international forces to monitor the ceasefire agreement. 

Al-Hayya’s comments came during a recent interview with the Qatari news site Al Jazeera, which has often served as a mouthpiece for the terror group throughout the war.

While affirming Hamas’ commitment to forming a technocratic governing committee to govern Gaza following the war, al-Hayya did not clarify whether Hamas intends to participate in such a governing committee. 

Al-Hayya told Al Jazeera that Hamas “will hand over all the reins of administration in the Gaza Strip to the management committee, including security,”  adding, “We do not have reservations about any national figure residing in Gaza to manage the Gaza Strip.” 

He said that Hamas presented "the Egyptian brothers almost four months ago with a list of more than 40 names of national public figures who have no political affiliation” with Hamas, telling the mediators to “choose whoever you want from them.”  

However, he said the group is eager to have Palestinian elections. “We want to move toward elections as a prelude to restoring national unity,” al-Hayya added. 

In the last round of legislative elections, held in 2006, Hamas won decisively, taking 44% of the vote and winning 74 out of 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. No elections have been held since the 2006 elections. 

Meanwhile, Hamas Political Bureau member Mousa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera that attempts to exclude Hamas from governing the Gaza Strip, as specified in the Trump Gaza plan, could lead to civil war and the destruction of Palestinian society.

"Some countries conditioned the rebuilding of Gaza on the exclusion of Hamas from the governing body," Abu Marzouk said. "Do they even know what the exclusion of Hamas means? It could mean civil war. It could mean the destruction of Palestinian society. It could lead to infighting. Do they really want this to happen to the Palestinian people?"

In his interview, al-Hayya restated the group’s objection to handing over its weapons, saying the terror organization’s weapons are a security guarantee against the “occupation,” and saying the weapons will belong to the Palestinian state. 

“We are a people under occupation, and we have the right under international law to confront the occupation, and our weapons that we and all the factions carry are linked to the existence of occupation and aggression,” al-Hayya said, explaining why Hamas will not hand over weapons before those goals are achieved. “And if this occupation ends and a Palestinian state is established for us, these weapons and its bearers will turn into a state.” 

The meaning of al-Hayya’s statement is not clear, as some Palestinian leaders refer to the existence of the State of Israel as the “occupation.” 

Al-Hayya also emphasized to Al Jazeera that Hamas does not regret the Gaza war started by the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel. 

He said that “The Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip paid the price they believe they had to pay, the Palestinian factions did what they were supposed to do, the price was heavy, but we strive for the price in return for these prices to be equivalent and rewarding for the Palestinian people.” 

Al-Hayya added that the whole world now understands that the Palestinian issue was neglected in recent years, and has now returned due to Hamas’ actions. 

Al-Hayya claimed that Hamas does not want the Palestinian people to continue to suffer, "We want the Palestinian people to calm down, be safe, and live in a Palestinian entity and state that we all aspire to.” 

The Hamas official also spoke out against attempts to separate Gaza and the Palestinian territories in Judea and Samaria as two separate issues. 

“Gaza and the West Bank are one national unity, and we do not accept the separation of Gaza from the West Bank,” the leader stated. “The principle is that the term of the administrative committee ends either with Palestinian elections or with the formation of an approved Palestinian government.”