Palestinians will take control of Gaza after war says ambassador

Palestinian officials say Hamas and Fatah are getting close to an agreement to appoint a committee of technocrats to run Gaza after the war.

A deal between the rival factions would effectively end Hamas’ rule and could help ceasefire talks with Israel.

We discussed this further with Ambassador Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, and a senior member of Fatah.

Matt Frei: These talks, how far have they got so far? How far will they go? Are they at all realistic? Because you’re kind of your foes, right? Fatah and Hamas are foes.

Husam Zomlot: Well, these talks are not about Fatah and Hamas. These talks are about the Palestinian people, these talks about ending the genocide in Gaza. These talks are about giving a way forward. So it is indeed a positive development. And the idea is that the Palestinian state, represented by the PLO, despite the Netanyahu veto over this, would entrust a technocratic committee made of professionals that will provide for our people and, you know, the catastrophic situation, the unprecedented human suffering. So at least we pass this hurdle of who takes over in Gaza. Only Palestinians will take over in Gaza, and the Palestinians have addresses and national legitimacy.

Matt Frei: So no more bad blood between Hamas and Fatah?

Husam Zomlot: This is not about, this is about…

Matt Frei: As you said, it’s not about the two of you. But you’ve got to get on with each other?

Husam Zomlot: There is blood here, which is our people’s blood being spilled on a military basis, our children, our women, our families. And this is what we need to stop. So this is not about political rivalries or political reconciliation. This is about providing a way forward. This is about telling everybody that Palestinians will only be governed by Palestinians, that Gaza is an integral part of the state of Palestine, that the West Bank and Gaza is one territorial entity and there is one political system. And all other plans are not accepted.

Matt Frei: But can this committee of technocrats actually run the Gaza Strip or what’s left of it after this?

Husam Zomlot: Well, with the help of everybody, yes.

Matt Frei: Including the Israelis?

Husam Zomlot: And with removing Israeli vetoes over…Netanyahu has made it very clear he doesn’t want the Palestinian government to return to Gaza because simply he doesn’t want the Palestinian state to emerge again. He does not want to unify Palestinian occupied territory and people nor give legitimacy to the political system. Nonetheless, the legitimacy of the Palestinian national institutions come only from the Palestinian people, not Netanyahu. That’s the only legitimate entity that will have to be in charge of our people everywhere. And the only thing that can happen on the day after stopping Israel’s genocide – is the Palestinian national institutions taking care of our people.

Matt Frei: And this is also what the Saudis have been saying very openly, what we just heard from the Qatari foreign ministry. This is what the rest of the Arab world wants. This is what much of Europe wants. But what about the United States under Donald Trump? You have Mike Huckabee, a new ambassador to Israel from the United States who doesn’t even believe Palestinians exist. He doesn’t go to the West Bank. He calls it Judea and Samaria.

Husam Zomlot: Well, we will have to tell them that, ‘hello, we exist.’ And not only do we exist now, we have existed for millennia.

Matt Frei: But is he going to listen? And will Trump tell him to listen?

• Husam Zomlot: We will make him listen. We are the cradle of civilisations. We are the birthplace of Christianity, a vivid rooted nation. But this is not just about one nominee. President Trump-elect, during the election campaign, promised that he wants to stop the killings and the carnage, and he wants to bring peace to the Middle East. We take that to heart.

Matt Frei: So you think it could be good news for your cause?

Husam Zomlot: Well, we want it to be good news. I don’t know if it could or not, but we want it to be good news. And we want to make sure that any opportunity is tapped. And we…the one most important priority right now is to stop the killing, is to stop the mass murder, mass destruction against our people, and then to start the journey of healing and rebuilding. And from there we move to our political horizon.

Matt Frei: One of the priorities for Mr. Trump, the president-elect, is to get the hostages released. He wants them released before he takes office, presumably because he doesn’t want to deal with it when he’s in office. So can you persuade Hamas to get those hostages released? As a gesture of goodwill.

Husam Zomlot: There is a UN Security Council resolution that was tabled by the US, actually, by the US administration in May – 2735. And that UN Security Council resolution includes all the stages, includes all the steps, including the release of all hostages. So we need to implement that UN Security Council resolution, so President Trump, when he starts in his second term, he will have a ready formula to actually implement.

Matt Frei: And if he gets that, if those hostages are released, he can then build on something more positive, you hope?

Husam Zomlot: Yes, indeed. Not only we hope – we want to see him and the rest of the international community learning the lesson of the last awful 14 months, which is we have got to visit the root cause of all this. We have got to uproot the cause of this, which is occupation and colonisation, besiegement and apartheid and all this system of supremacy. This is about time that we end it once and for all and actually establish an independent, sovereign state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.