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The United States is nearing the formation of a committee of Palestinian technocrats to oversee the administration of the Gaza Strip, with an announcement expected later Wednesday, the New York Times reported.
The newspaper quoted four officials and six people familiar with the decision as saying that Ali Shaath, the former deputy Palestinian minister of planning, has been selected to head the committee.
According to The New York Times, people familiar with the Gaza plans expect the committee to be announced in parallel with a meeting in Egypt’s capital, Cairo, bringing together Palestinian officials from Hamas and other factions for talks.
The sources who spoke to the newspaper did not disclose additional details regarding the identities of the committee’s remaining members, how it would administer the Gaza Strip, or which parties would fund its operations.
In a related development inside Gaza, Al Jazeera reported that government ministries in the Strip continue to run urgent humanitarian and essential services on an interim basis, pending the handover of administrative duties to a technocratic committee expected to be approved in the coming days.
This follows Hamas’ announcement that it has issued instructions for government bodies to be ready to transfer institutions to a committee to be agreed upon under Egyptian auspices.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said the movement has taken “positive and serious steps” toward handing over the management of public affairs in Gaza as part of what he described as prioritizing “the supreme national interest and ending the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
He said Hamas has instructed all government bodies and institutions to begin immediately transferring all government files to an independent Palestinian technocratic committee that is expected to be formed in the coming period, stressing that the decision is “final and irreversible,” according to his comments to Al Jazeera.
Ismail al-Thawabteh, director general of Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Al Jazeera that ministries and institutions are currently operating under a “minimum operating system.”
He said they are also following a “comprehensive emergency management” approach, with work focused solely on delivering humanitarian and essential services.
He said the institutions have documented files and working mechanisms that would allow authorities to be transferred in an orderly manner as soon as a comprehensive national consensus is reached, preventing an administrative vacuum or chaos.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal quoted U.S. officials as confirming that the Trump administration will announce on Wednesday a move to the next phase of the Gaza plan.
The ceasefire plan backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, which came into effect in October, stipulates that the committee be nonpolitical, tasked with delivering public services in the Strip, and composed of independent Palestinian experts.
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