Qais Abu Samra and Betul Yilmaz
18 August 2025•Update: 18 August 2025
RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL
An interim Palestinian committee will govern the Gaza Strip after a ceasefire is reached, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said on Monday.
“The Gaza Management Committee, which will be announced soon, is an interim committee under the authority of the Palestinian government,” Mustafa told a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty at the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip.
“Gaza is an integral part of our state, and our government is the only executive body authorized to manage its affairs,” he added.
Mustafa stressed that the Israeli assault on Gaza “does not give any party, local or international, legitimacy to impose superior arrangements” on the enclave.
The premier said the Palestinian Authority is working with Egypt to prepare a conference for the reconstruction of Gaza “as soon as possible.”
Israel’s closure of the Rafah crossing to the entry of aid trucks into Gaza is “a message to the world that Israel is starving the Palestinian people to force their displacement,” Mustafa said.
On Aug. 8, the Israeli Security Cabinet approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal to gradually occupy the Gaza Strip, beginning with Gaza City.
The plan envisions the takeover of Gaza City by displacing nearly 1 million residents to the south, surrounding the city, and then carrying out raids into its neighborhoods. A second phase would involve retaking refugee camps in central Gaza, much of which has already been reduced to rubble.
Israel has killed more than 61,900 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave and brought it to the verge of famine.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
