The appointment of 54-year-old Rami Hamdallah as the new Palestinian Authority Prime Minister has drawn a sharp response from Gaza factions, least of all Hamas.
President Mahmoud Abbas selected Hamdallah, the chairman of An-Najah University in the West Bank, six weeks following the resignation of Salam Fayyad after a bitter dispute with Abbas.
The new government is not expected to have any major replacements, with only the addition of two deputies: one from Gaza and the other from the West Bank.
Hamas reacted harshly to Hamdallah’s appointment, labelling the move as “illegal," while other Gaza-based Palestinian factions, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) have vowed to boycott the new government.
The "new government proves that the Fatah leadership is willing to maintain and prolong the state of disagreement," Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday.
But according to Ramallah-based Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf, the appointment of Hamdallah was a must in such circumstances where the prime minister’s chair was vacant.
“With Fayyad’s resignation while the reconciliation talks are still in process, we had no alternative but assigning a new prime minister to take care of administrational issues,” Assaf told Al-Monitor by phone. more
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