Amjad Shawa has reportedly been appointed by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority as the approved leader of a new technocratic council to rule the Gaza Strip.
According to Israel’s public broadcaster KAN News, as cited by the Jerusalem Post, Shawa was approved as the new leader at a meeting between Hamas, the Palestinian Authority and Egyptian intelligence in Cairo last week.
However, his official appointment depends on the United States, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Who is Amjad Shawa?
Amjad Shawa is the director of the Palestinian NGO Network, which is in contact with the UN and international humanitarian organizations.
Palestinian sources told KAN: “Amjad Shawa is pro-Hamas without being a Hamas person.”
On October 10, CBC news reported that Amjad Shawa was living in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza. But his heart, he said, is in Gaza City.
“People know that their homes have been destroyed, but they will insist on coming (back) and pitching their tents over the rubble of houses,” said Nil Köksal, host of CBC Radio’s As It Happens.
He left his home in the upscale Rimal neighborhood in the early days of the war between Israel and Hamas and returned there with his family in January.
Israel insists it will control security in Gaza
Israel insisted on Sunday that it would maintain control of security inside Gaza despite signing a US-brokered ceasefire that sees the deployment of international security forces.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ministers that Israel would decide for itself where and when to attack its enemies and which countries would be allowed to send troops to oversee the ceasefire.
“Israel is an independent state. We will defend ourselves with our own means and we will continue to determine our own destiny,” Netanyahu said. “We’re not asking for anyone’s approval. We’re checking our security.”
Under the terms of a US-brokered truce, as Israeli forces withdraw after two years of brutal fighting against Hamas, Gaza is to be secured by an international force expected to come mostly from Arab or Muslim countries.
But Israel opposes any role for its regional rival Turkey and Netanyahu, under fire from hardliners in his own coalition for even agreeing to a ceasefire, took a tough line at a meeting of cabinet ministers in Jerusalem on Sunday.
“With regard to international forces, we have said clearly that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us,” he said, one day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ended the latest parade of high-level visits by Washington officials.
