Palestinians ‘must find a new path from Israeli rule after war’

RAMALLAH (Reuters): Immediately after Israel’s war in Gaza ends, all Palestinian factions, including Hamas, must take a serious look at the failure of their policies to achieve freedom for their people, a top Palestinian Authority official said.

Hussein Al-Sheikh, 63, said war in Gaza after the Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel meant Hamas should make a “serious and honest assessment and reconsider all its policies and all its methods” once fighting subsides.

Sheikh, the general secretary of President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestine Liberation Organization, is seen by some as a potential successor.

His comments were the first time a senior PLO leader has talked publicly about Hamas tactics since the Oct. 7 attacks.

Sheikh also acknowledged the political path under the Oslo Peace Accords was faltering and, as it currently stands, would not achieve the ambition of the Palestinian people for the establishment of a Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders.

Sheikh and Abbas met senior White House aide Jake Sullivan in Ramallah on Friday.

The Palestinians told him a new international effort was needed to persuade Israel of a comprehensive solution that includes the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, Sheikh said.

“There must be a single Palestinian government governing the Palestinian homeland,” Sheikh said in a rare interview in sleek offices adorned with portraits Abbas and his predecessor Yasser Arafat in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

Despite offering welcome verbal backing for a Palestinian state in the meetings, Sheikh said, Washington had not proposed concrete mechanisms or political initiatives.

He reiterated a call by Abbas for an international peace conference to forge a new route.

Sheikh said the Palestinian Authority was the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and would be ready to take control of Gaza after the war.

However, he recognized that the Palestinian Authority needed to reassess its role.

Referring to Hamas, Sheikh said “it is not acceptable for some to believe that their method and approach in managing the conflict with Israel was the ideal and the best.

“After all this (killing) and after everything that’s happening, isn’t it worth making a serious, honest, and responsible assessment to protect our people and our Palestinian cause?

“Isn’t it worth discussing how to manage this conflict with the Israeli occupation?“

Sheikh said 60 percent of Gaza was destroyed, and it would cost $40 billion to rebuild over decades.

The 1993 Oslo peace accords with Israel were partially successful, he said, in that they gave Palestinians an identity and led to the repatriation of 2 million refugees to the West Bank and Gaza from countries they fled to during the 1948 and 1967 wars with Israel.

He said the PA had been weakened by Israel’s military raids and expansion of settlements.

Abbas promoted Sheikh last year. His new role makes him the second most powerful man in the PLO.

In response to a request for comment, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Sheikh was “on the side of the Israeli civil administration, and him attacking the Palestinian resistance is not surprising.”

Sheikh said it was his job to work with Israel to reduce the suffering of Palestinians.