RAMALLAH, August 2, 2017 (WAFA) – All actions taken by the Palestinian Authority in Gaza will be retracted once Hamas, the de facto power in the Gaza Strip, dissolves its recently established administrative committee, a senior Fatah official said on Wednesday.

Jamal Muheisen, member of Fatah Central Committee, told Voice of Palestine radio that President Mahmoud Abbas told a Hamas delegation he met with the day before in Ramallah that if Hamas dissolves the administrative committee it had established to run the Gaza Strip and enables the government of Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to work freely in Gaza, then all measures recently applied to the Gaza Strip will be retracted.

The Palestinian Authority stopped paying for fuel for electricity to Gaza, stopped salaries of hundreds of people and sent over 6000 state employees to early retirement.

Abbas told the Hamas delegation, according to Muheisen, that enabling the government to work in the Gaza Strip will pave the way for presidential and legislative elections as well as elections for the Palestinian National Council (PNC), the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Muheisen said that the PNC is going to convene in September in Ramallah and it is expected to elect the main bodies of the PLO, most importantly a new executive committee.

He called on Hamas to participate in that conference in order to consolidate national unity.

M.N./M.K.