Hamas’s decision to dissolve its government in Gaza is intended as a message to US President Donald Trump that the group is not an obstacle to his flagging peace plan for the enclave, experts tell Middle East Eye.
Hamas announced on Monday the dissolution of the body that has governed the Gaza Strip for nearly two decades.
“The head of the government’s emergency committee, Mohammed al-Farra, has officially submitted his resignation,” Ismail al-Thawabta, head of Hamas’s government media office, told AFP.
“He has also decided to dissolve the committee to facilitate the administrative and governmental transition to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG),” he added.
Hamas has governed Gaza since 2006, when it won a majority in the Palestinian legislature and formed a cabinet. Shortly after, fighting broke out between Hamas and its secular rival, Fatah. Hamas consolidated its hold in Gaza, and Fatah in the West Bank, via the Palestinian Authority.
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“Hamas is signalling to Trump that they are not the obstacle to his peace deal, unlike Israel, which is bombing and killing every day,” Khaled Elgindy, a senior research fellow in the Middle East programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told MEE.
“Hamas is actually more on board with giving up civilian governance in Gaza in favour of NCAG than the Palestinian Authority,” Elgindy added, referring to Hamas’s rival, which exercises limited governance in the occupied West Bank.
“This move is not surprising or unexpected, but it is notable,” he added.
NCAG is the committee of Palestinian technocrats from Gaza intended to govern daily affairs in the enclave as part of the peace deal brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt in September 2025 to end Israel’s genocide in the enclave, where over 73,000 Palestinians have been killed.
The committee has been unable to enter Gaza and is instead based in Cairo.
Israeli violations
Meanwhile, Israel has continued to launch attacks on Gaza, killing over 1,000 people since the ceasefire was signed.
Israel has restricted the entry of aid into the enclave and has also expanded its military presence in recent months, taking control of nearly 70 percent of Gaza’s territory.
‘Hamas wants to remove a pretext for Israel to continue attacking Gaza’
– Khaled Elgindy, Quincy Institute
Trump’s “Board of Peace” has failed to condemn Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza and land grabs. According to Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, it is also overseeing a plan to herd Palestinians into so-called “Hamas-free humanitarian zones”.
The Board said it “took note” of Hamas’s decision and called for the “consolidation of all weapons under the control of the NCAG”.
NCAG said it was ready to take over the civilian governance of Gaza.
“We affirm that the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza is fully prepared to assume its national responsibilities as soon as the necessary resources and capabilities are available,” Ali Shaath, head of the committee, wrote on X.
“The fundamental requirements for the committee’s success are a single authority, a single law with a clear mandate, and a single armed force under the authority of this single entity,” he added.
Israel responded to Hamas’s announcement by calling for the “complete demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip”.
Under the 2025 peace plan, Hamas agreed to decommission its weapons as Israel withdraws from the enclave. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said publicly that Israel plans to increase its territorial control of Gaza.
Elgindy told MEE that Hamas’s announcement was intended to show good faith in the peace plan while deferring the “trickier” issue of demilitarisation.
“Hamas wants to remove a pretext for Israel to continue attacking Gaza. But Netanyahu wants a permanent war, and the issue of Hamas’s weapons is the trickier topic,” he added.
