Peace boards and technocrats won’t stem out Palestinian resistance
Palestinian fighters stand guard during a prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel in Khan Younis, southern Gaza on 13 October 2025
Refaat Ibrahim writes in Al Jazeera on 18 January 2026
Last week, just as Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip intensified, United States presidential envoy Steven Witkoff announced on social media that the “ceasefire” is entering its second stage. In the following days, the administration of US President Donald Trump unveiled the makeup of a foreign executive committee and a peace board that will oversee the provisional administration of Gaza composed of Palestinian technocrats.
This setup reflects the wishes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that neither Hamas nor the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA) would be involved in Gaza’s future. Although the latter is mentioned in Trump’s “peace plan”, it supposedly first has to carry out a set of unnamed reforms to have any role in Gaza.
What this means in reality is that Fatah, too, can easily be blocked from returning to govern the Gaza Strip with the excuse that these vague reforms have not been carried out.
The problem with the present setup and Israel’s insistence on “no Hamas, no Fatah” is that they reflect a profound ignorance of the fabric of Palestinian society, its politics and history. The idea that a Palestinian political entity can be created by outside forces and fully integrated into the occupation to manage Palestinian affairs is unrealistic.
Over the past 77 years, various Palestinian national movements and revolutions have emerged, united by a single common denominator: the rejection of Israeli colonial presence. No Palestinian collective, regardless of its form, has ever publicly agreed to integration into the Israeli colonial project.
Within the framework of resistance, the collective Palestinian consciousness was forged, political parties were born, and the trajectory of public opinion was defined. While the tools and methods adopted by different segments of Palestinian society and political factions may vary, they all share a common commitment to the Palestinian cause and to Palestinian rights.
Fatah and Hamas remain the two most prominent political components of Palestinian society. Fatah emerged as the dominant national liberation movement before its political trajectory shifted following the Oslo Accords, while Hamas has maintained its commitment to resistance since its inception. Between these two currents and other smaller factions, the Palestinian social fabric naturally rejects any leadership or entity that operates outside the framework of national independence or accepts foreign guardianship.