The Government Emergency Committee in the Gaza Strip announced on Monday that it had dissolved itself and that its chairman, Mohammed Abdel Khaleq Al-Farra, who also serves as acting head of government follow-up, had resigned, clearing the way for the transfer of administrative responsibilities to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).
The move comes after two decades of Hamas rule in Gaza. In the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, Hamas won 74 of the legislature’s 132 seats, compared with 45 for Fatah, and formed its first government on March 28 that year.
The announcement came at a press conference at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, attended by Hamas spokesperson in Gaza Hazem Qassem and Government Media Office Director Ismail Al-Thawabta.
Al-Thawabta said Gaza’s government bodies had repeatedly said they stood ready to hand over governance in Gaza to the NCAG.
“Today, we are translating that commitment into action,” Al-Thawabta said, adding that the committee was taking “new and decisive” steps to pave the way for the handover.
He said dissolving the Government Emergency Committee was intended to facilitate the transfer of governance in Gaza to the NCAG “in response to the supreme interests of our Palestinian people” and to help ease suffering caused by the war, delays in reconstruction, the blockade, and Israel’s continued military presence in the Strip.
He said a meeting held Monday with representatives of Palestinian factions and political forces in Gaza, the Higher Committee of Clans and Tribes, civil society organizations, and a UN observer, had completed the administrative and legal arrangements for the handover. Only technical and professional staff would remain in place “to ensure the continued delivery of services” and prevent an administrative vacuum, in line with the roadmap agreed by Palestinian factions in Cairo.
The Government Media Office director said Gaza government employees were fully prepared to work under the authority of the NCAG.
In comments to Al Manassa, Al-Thawabta said he expected the committee, which is currently in Cairo, to announce within hours or days the first steps to assume its governing role in Gaza.
Responding to the announcement, NCAG head Ali Shaath said the committee was ready “to carry out its national responsibilities as soon as the necessary capabilities and conditions are available.”
In a Facebook post, he said the committee could only operate if there was a single governing authority, a unified legal framework, and all weapons were placed under that authority, creating the political, administrative, and security conditions needed for it to carry out its mandate.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem told Al Manassa that the group had informed ceasefire mediators and guarantors of its decision to dissolve the Government Emergency Committee and hand over governance in Gaza, saying the move was intended to accelerate the National Committee’s deployment and assumption of its duties.
He stressed that Hamas would have no governmental or administrative role once the National Committee assumed its responsibilities, adding that Gaza government employees “are employees of the people, not employees of Hamas.”
Qassem called on countries mediating the ceasefire agreement and the “Board of Peace” to pressure Israel to facilitate the National Committee’s entry into Gaza, organize urgent humanitarian relief, and begin reconstruction.
He said Hamas still insisted that any weapons collection or storage be handled only by a Palestinian body, adding, “The National Committee’s entry is a step forward that will advance the broader political process and pave the way for Palestinian elections.”
Under US President Donald Trump’s plan, agreed by Israel and Hamas, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza and reconstruction would begin in exchange for Hamas disarming. The plan set an eight-month transition beginning with the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a US-backed Palestinian technocratic body, assuming responsibility for security in the territory, and ending with a full Israeli withdrawal once “the final verification that Gaza is free of weapons” is completed.
An Israeli source, according to Israel’s Kan public broadcaster, described the dissolution of the Government Emergency Committee as “nothing more than spin,” claiming that all Hamas members remained in their positions. The source said Hamas feared “being classified as a party violating the agreement” and was therefore resorting to delays and media tactics.
In a separate development, six Palestinians were killed Monday in three Israeli airstrikes across northern and southern Gaza, according to a Gaza Health Ministry source who spoke to Al Manassa. More than 20 others were wounded.
A helicopter fired a single missile before dawn at a house belonging to the Doghmush family on Al-Sina‘ah Street southeast of Gaza City, killing two people and wounding others.
In a second strike during the early morning hours, two more people were killed when a civilian vehicle traveling along the coastal road west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza was hit. Another strike targeted a tent on Roni Street in the Al-Mawasi area west of the city, killing two more people and wounding others, including women and children, according to a journalist who spoke to Al Manassa. The source said Israeli airstrikes on civilians continued without prior warning.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has continued despite the ceasefire agreement signed by Hamas and Israel last October. Since then, 1,072 people have been killed and 3,406 wounded, bringing the total death toll since October 7, 2023, to more than 73,000, with more than 173,000 injured, according to the latest figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry.
