The Palestinian Authority (PA) government’s premier Rami Hamdallah on Wednesday confirmed his government’s readiness to fully assume its responsibilities in Gaza through a series of pre-set plans.
While a number of PA ministers left the Gaza Strip on Wednesday Hamdallah continued his meetings with representatives of Palestinian factions and other notables in the territory.
Hamdallah said that his government is counting heavily on the next meeting between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo hoping it will be “fruitful”.
During his meeting with nearly 100 Palestinian businessmen in Gaza Hamdallah noted that there are many projects the PA government is looking forward to implementing in the coastal enclave in the fields of industry power water investment infrastructure and sewage treatment.
Hamdallah pointed out that his government had overseen the reconstruction of 101000 houses in the Gaza Strip which represent 63% of 130000 houses destroyed in the latest war against the enclave.
He explained that the reconstruction process was carried out despite the failure of many donor countries to meet their promises regarding the reconstruction issue adding that only 35.5% of the aid estimated at five billion dollars had been received.
He assured that his government is working to solve the problem of public employees in Gaza saying at the same time that it is difficult for the PA government to pay the salaries of 40000 or 50000 employees at once because this would cost it not less than $50 million per month.
As for the border crossings issue Hamdallah said that Rafah crossing will be under the administration of the Palestinian legitimate forces only.
An Egyptian security delegation and a number of PA ministers on Wednesday left the Gaza Strip after Hamas handed over all Gaza ministries to the PA government.
The Egyptian delegation arrived in Gaza earlier this week to pave the way for Hamas to hand over the Gaza responsibilities to the PA government.
On Tuesday Egypt’s intelligence minister Khalid Fawzi paid a 3-hour visit to Gaza to meet with Hamas’s leaders and Hamdallah who came to the Gaza Strip on Monday to start assuming his duties in the enclave as agreed in the Cairo talks.
