The Palestinian Authority says it is ready to ‘take charge’ of Gaza

Zomlot said: “This is the time now. The state of Palestine is ready to take charge of the whole territory of the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza immediately.

Husam Zomlot (pictured right, shaking hands with then Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, left, as Foreign Minister, Riyad Al Maliki looks on) denied there was discrimination against LGBT people in Palestine(Photo: Getty Images)

“We refuse any military or partial ­solutions for Gaza. Gaza is an ­integral part of the state of Palestine. We do not accept Israel’s goal to separate Gaza from the rest of us.”

Earlier this month, political leader of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh said he was “open to” having a single Palestinian administration to govern in Gaza and the West Bank.

However Lt. Col. (res) Maurice Hirsch, director of the Initiative for Palestinian Authority Accountability and Reform in the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs and the former director of the Military Prosecution for Judea and Samaria, explained to JNS why many members of the Israeli government strongly oppose the idea of the PA taking responsibility for Gaza.

The PA holds a lot of firsts, Hirsch said. It was the first to turn all its energies to delegitimising and demonising Israel, the first to come up with “pay-for-slay” –rewarding terrorists financially for carrying out attacks against Jews – and the first to educate the murderers of October 7.

“The people coming across the border [from Gaza] were not 16-year-olds, i.e. those who grew up solely under the rule of Hamas. These were people who grew up and were educated in PA schools, even before Hamas took control,” he said.

The PA also was behind the genocide case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, part of its ongoing lawfare against Israel, Hirsch said.

“The PA is driving global antisemitism. It’s the PA and its embassies that are undermining and spreading libels about Israel. The PA invented, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ – the genocidal call parroted around the world. That Palestinian rhetoric gave birth to this violent Jew-hatred we’re now seeing,” Hirsch said. “This is the organisation that you want there?”