Image Credit- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Photo:  Martin Schulz/CC/flickr.com.  Image is from  Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license

Fatah, the Palestinian nationalist and social democratic party, and its president Mahmoud Abbas appointed Mohammad Mustafa as the new Palestinian prime minister, which triggered criticism from Hamas and other factions toward Fatah over Abbas’s appointment of the new leader. They mentioned that the appointment of the new leader would increase divisions.

The factions said in a statement addressed to Fatah, “Making individual decisions and engaging in formal steps that are devoid of substance, like forming a new government without national consensus, is a reinforcement of a policy of exclusion and deepening of division.”

The former Palestinian PM resigned less than three weeks ago, which led Mustafa to replace him.

Mustafa accepted the appointment and, in a letter to President Abbas, said he was “well aware of the severity of the dire circumstances that the Palestinian people are going through.”

However, Hamas criticized Mustafa’s appointment, saying it was not consulted in the “unilateral” decision.

“We express our rejection of continuing this approach that has inflicted and continues to inflict harm on our people and our national cause,” Hamas commented.

“Making individual decisions and engaging in superficial and empty steps, such as forming a new government without national consensus, only reinforces a policy of unilateralism and deepens division.”

However, Fatah responded to the comments made by Hamas and accused them of “having caused the return of the Israeli occupation of Gaza.” Moreover, Fatah claims that Hamas did not consult with the other Palestinian factions before launching the attack on October 7.

Prime Minister Mustafa now has the responsibility of constructing a new government for the Palestinian Authority.