Palestinian Authority Tells US It’s Ready to ‘Clash’ with Hamas to Assume Control of Gaza: Report

Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- The Palestinian Authority reportedly told the US it is ready to “clash” with Hamas if necessary to take power in the Gaza Strip, during a pitch to President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy.
Middle East Eye (MEE) revealed on Friday, citing a Palestinian source, that the plan was presented on Tuesday to Steve Witkoff during a meeting in Riyadh by Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official who has been floated as a successor to octogenarian Palestinian President Mohammad Abbas.
The PA’s plan envisions the Gaza Strip ruled by a committee whose majority is from outside of the enclave.
The meeting between Trump’s Middle East envoy and the Sheikh was arranged by Saudi Arabia at the request of the Palestinian Authority, after Witkoff declined their offers to meet in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to the source.
Witkoff later travelled to Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Notably, he had no reservations about making a trip to Gaza, becoming on Wednesday the first US official to visit Gaza in 15 years.
Ziad Abu Amr, one of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s longtime advisors, would become the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip, heading the committee, MEE reported.
He would be appointed deputy to Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa, but with significantly expanded powers.
Abu Amr was born in the Gaza Strip in 1950. He could be palatable to the Trump administration because he is also a US citizen. He obtained his PhD from Georgetown University and served as deputy Palestinian prime minister from 2013 to 2024.
Abu Amr has been active in trying to reassert the PA’s authority in Gaza. He previously lobbied against funding the reconstruction of the besieged enclave following a 2014 war.
“When people talk about reconstruction, people talk about the return of the [Palestinian Authority] to Gaza and Gaza run by the reconciliation government…I don’t think reconstruction would happen otherwise,” he told the Wall Street Journal at the time.
The PA’s boast to the Trump administration that it is ready to clash with Hamas was squashed by one senior US defence official, who told MEE it sounded “delusional”, adding they would need military support and potentially troops from other Arab states or private contractors.
The PA is dominated by the Palestinian party, Fatah.
Israel’s war ojectives was to eliminate Hamas, heaping massive pressure on the PA, which was already considered corrupt and an Israeli collaborator by most Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.