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The Palestinian Authority will "need a lot" of support to regain control in the Gaza Strip and restore order once the war ends, a senior EU official said on Saturday.
For more than a decade the PA has been absent from the Gaza Strip after Hamas's win in the 2006 legislative elections and its subsequent victory in the Battle of Gaza, which saw the Islamist group take complete control of the enclave in 2007.
But as Israel continues its air and ground campaign in the Strip, which has so far killed at least 12,000 Palestinians including 5,000 children, some Arab and western leaders have suggested only the PA can run Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war is over.
"They say they are ready," the senior European official told The National, on the sidelines of the the IISS Manama Dialogue 2023 in Bahrain.
"The PA is ready to retake their role as the Palestinian authority in Gaza, they showed clearly their will to retake their political duty in Gaza."
Mohammad Shtayyeh, the Palestinian Authority's Prime Minister, said at the end of October that the PA would not return to governing Gaza without a comprehensive deal that includes the occupied West Bank in a Palestinian state.
The EU official said the PA "will need a lot of help to rebuild that statehood".
For years they have been "providing services inside Gaza, who do you think has been funding schools and hospitals in Gaza, Hamas? No, it's the Palestinian Authority," the official said.
The challenge is not to rebuild Gaza physically again but it is about engaging the Gaza Strip as part of the West Bank, the official said.
The continuing war began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, with its fighters breaching the heavily militarised border, killing about 1,200 Israelis – mostly civilians – and taking about 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
The EU official said the PA has been the only authority in the Gaza Strip that has provided everything to "make a country work."
"The civilian side of life [in the Gaza Strip] is in the hands of the PA," said the official.
There are more than 40,000 staff in Gaza, civil servants, those that are running schools and hospitals, who are paid by the PA, said the European official.
"Only the security issues inside the Strip are in the hands of Hamas," he said.
The European official added, "tens of thousands of staff inside Gaza are being paid by the Palestinian Authority, helping the people in Gaza".
He reiterated that the issue now is not to rebuild Gaza "as it has been rehabilitated at least four times", but rebuilding and strengthen the Palestinian statehood.
The vital point here is "building a statehood of Gaza as part of the Palestinian territory and people, I know think it looks ambitious and maybe difficult to believe that this may happen," he said.
Reputation
Taylor Swift
(Big Machine Records)
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
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UAE squad
Esha Oza (captain), Al Maseera Jahangir, Emily Thomas, Heena Hotchandani, Indhuja Nandakumar, Katie Thompson, Lavanya Keny, Mehak Thakur, Michelle Botha, Rinitha Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Siya Gokhale, Sashikala Silva, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish (wicketkeeper) Udeni Kuruppuarachchige, Vaishnave Mahesh.
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo
Friday, Sept 26 – First ODI
Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The five pillars of Islam
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
Squad
Ali Kasheif, Salim Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdulrahman, Mohammed Al Attas, Abdullah Ramadan, Zayed Al Ameri (Al Jazira), Mohammed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammed Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Essa, Mohammed Shaker, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah) Walid Abbas, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli), Tariq Ahmed, Jasim Yaqoub (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Muharami (Baniyas)
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
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