Exclusive: Palestinian Authority tells US it is ready to ‘clash’ with Hamas for control of Gaza

The Palestinian Authority told the US it is ready to “clash” with Hamas if that is the price needed to take power in the Gaza Strip, during a pitch to President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Middle East Eye can reveal.

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, a Palestinian source told local media. 

The PA’s plan envisions the Gaza Strip ruled by a committee whose majority is from outside of the enclave.

The rendezvous between Trump’s Middle East troubleshooter and Sheikh was facilitated by Saudi Arabia at the request of the PA, after Witkoff refused its overtures to meet in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the source said.

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. 

Saudi Arabia brokered the meeting between the US and the PA but did not review the plan before the PA pitched it to Witkoff, the source said.

Who is Ziad Abu Amr? The PA’s man for Gaza

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. He would be appointed deputy to Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa but endowed with massive new 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. 

US doubts PA firepower

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 local media 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 secular Palestinian party, Fatah.

In 2007, fighting broke out between Fatah and Islamist Hamas after the latter swept to power in Palestinian legislative elections the year before. In the end, Hamas consolidated its hold over Gaza, and Fatah in the occupied West Bank. Efforts to reconcile the two have failed.

Hamas has embarrassed Israel and the PA by demonstrating its public support in Gaza and military organisation during high-profile prisoner exchanges over the last several weeks. Hamas military units have moved freely in Gaza and secured well-choreographed prisoner exchanges in front of cheering Palestinian crowds.

Israel’s stated war aim was to eliminate Hamas. 

Those displays have heaped massive pressure on the PA, which was already considered corrupt and an Israeli collaborator by most Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Now, the PA is fighting desperately not to be sidelined altogether since Trump returned to the White House. Since early December, it has been besieging the Jenin refugee camp, attacking Palestinian resistance fighters.

Tahani Mustafa, the International Crisis Group’s senior Palestine analyst, called the attack a “suicide mission” and a last-ditch attempt to demonstrate that the PA can still project hard power.

“The PA is worried that if there is a new administration in Gaza and it’s not them, all their funding will be channelled away. Their ultimate fear is that the centre of political gravity will shift from the West Bank to Gaza and leave them high and dry,” Mustafa previously told local media.

Ramallah’s ageing, sclerotic leadership was at the centre of the Biden administration’s plan for post-war governance of Gaza, but Trump has barely mentioned the PA.

In fact, he has shown little direct interest in Gaza, which he labelled “literally a demolition site right now”.

He has called for Jordan and Egypt to accept Palestinians from Gaza, saying, “We just clean out that whole thing.”

PA squeezed between Saudi Arabia and UAE 

During his first term in office, Trump downgraded diplomatic relations with the PA by shutting down the US consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem and also closing down the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s office in Washington DC. The PLO is a coalition of Palestinian groups led by the PA.

Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, loathed the PA and attempted to stifle any US cooperation with the authority. Those tensions culminated in Trump cutting aid to the PA. Kushner floated a proposal for Palestinians to be forcibly displaced from the Gaza Strip in March 2024.

A former senior US official previously told local media the PA would likely face an uphill challenge in obtaining support from the Trump administration. Gaza has provided an opening for the PA’s top Arab Gulf critic, the UAE, to push for a Palestinian leadership change. The UAE has said it is willing to send peacekeepers to Gaza if the PA is reformed without Abbas.

An Egyptian official previously told local media that Abbas was “infuriated” by the proposal.

Within the Palestinian secular elite, there is a rift between Abbas, who has governed in the West Bank without elections since 2006, and Fatah’s former strongman in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan.

The latter resides in the UAE and is an emissary for the UAE’s ruling al-Nahyan family. Dahlan was expelled from Fatah but retained some support in Gaza and the occupied West Bank through the Fatah-Democratic Reform Bloc.

Saudi Arabia could be a linchpin for the Gaza Strip’s future. In addition to having funds to reconstruct the enclave, it has leaned more neutral to engaging various Palestinian factions, as opposed to the UAE.

Along with the UAE and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia was hostile to Hamas during the Arab Spring but has since become more accommodating.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has publicly declared Israel committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, whereas the UAE’s foreign minister has publicly hosted his Israeli counterpart. Before 7 October 2023, Riyadh hosted a visit by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel in July 2024.