RAMALLAH: A new Palestinian government that includes both Gazans and four women has sworn in Sunday, but its own people have expressed skepticism over its future.
The Palestinian Authority led by Mahmud Abbas is already facing pressure from the Biden admiration to prepare to step into the breach in after Gaza war and make some urgent reforms.
Newly-appointed prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa said his government’s top priority was to end the war in Gaza.
He added that his cabinet will formalize visions to unify the institutions again, including assuming Gaza’s responsibility.
President Abbas, 88, is being pressurized by the United States to shake the authority and unite the occupied West Bank and Gaza under a single government after the war in the area.
Gaza since 2007 has been under the control of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority has practically no influence over the Gaza Strip.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asked Abbas to make urgent administrative reforms when the two leaders met in January.
Abbas’s Ramallah-based administration has been confined by Israel’s decades-old occupation of the West Bank.
Mustafa, an economist and longtime advisor of Abbas, said the reconstruction of the Palestinian territories was his main objective, with Gaza in ruins after six months of Israeli bombardment after October 7.
His new cabinet is comprised of 23 ministers and includes four women and six ministers from Gaza. Former Gaza City mayor Maged Abu Ramadan has been given the health portfolio.
