US-Appointed Gaza Chief Ali Shaath Stuck in Cairo — SkimNews
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- Ali Shaath was appointed chief commissioner of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) under Trump's 20-point peace plan over seven months ago, but has been 'languishing in a hotel in Cairo' with his team as Gaza reconstruction has not begun.
- Shaath plans to push Gaza's rubble into the Mediterranean Sea to create new land, claiming the process 'won't take more than three years.'
- Israel refuses to consider Hamas's agreement to store away weapons as disarmament and is withholding commitment to the existing deal ahead of October parliamentary elections.
- Eran Lerman, Israel's former deputy national security advisor, said the NCAG could provide 'norms' for post-Abbas governance in the West Bank, with Palestinians fearing the committee could replace national liberation with economic-prosperity-first governance.
- Mahmoud Abbas has required political groups to renounce violence and recognize Israel as prerequisites for elections, conditions critics view as a deliberate mechanism to exclude Hamas, which won the 2006 Palestinian elections.
- Hamas elected Khalil al-Hayya as its new chief last month and is exploring whether to field candidates as independents in upcoming elections, though the group has never recognized Israel and only proposed a hudna, not permanent resolution.
Why it matters: Shaath's limbo exposes a core contradiction: the U.S. and Israel have agreed on a Gaza administrator, but neither can compel the conditions required for him to start work. With October Israeli elections approaching and Hamas still armed, the NCAG's interim mandate risks becoming permanent — fragmenting Palestinian representation by replacing the PA with a Trump-appointed technocratic body focused on economics rather than national liberation.
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