Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas appointed the chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund to form a new government that will seek to rebuild the Gaza Strip when the Israel-Hamas war ends, according to his office.
The appointment of Mohammed Mustafa as prime minister was announced weeks after the former premier, Mohammad Shtayyeh, tendered his administration’s resignation. Mustafa has three weeks to assemble a government, with the possibility of a two-week extension if needed, according to the Palestinian constitution.
The announcement comes as the US and countries in the Middle East have been pushing for a reformed Palestinian Authority, which could receive additional powers as Hamas, which runs Gaza, is weakened by Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 attack by the militant group.
Mustafa is a longtime member of Abbas’s inner circle so the choice may fall short of urgings by critics for a new generation of leaders to revamp the Palestinian Authority.
The authority, which controls swaths of the West Bank, is trying to position itself to take on a larger role in the governance of Gaza once the war ends. While Washington supports greater Palestinian Authority control in Gaza, Israel has publicly opposed it.
This will be the 19th government since the founding of the Palestinian Authority in 1994. Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union, has controlled Gaza since it unseated the authority there in 2007 in a violent coup.
Mustafa, an economist, has chaired the Palestine Investment Fund for the past nine years and formerly served as its chief executive officer. From 2013 until 2015, he served as the deputy prime minister of the PA.
