What is the new Gaza administration as Hamas dissolves government?
Ismail al-Thawabta, general director of the government media office, speaks during a press conference at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, on 6 July 2026
Shola Lawal writes in Al Jazeera on 7 July 2026:
After nearly two decades of governing the Gaza Strip, Hamas has announced it will dissolve its government and hand over power to a new, Palestinian technocratic governing authority.
The move comes as a United States-backed peace process, which resulted in a ceasefire last year, has largely stalled and as Israel’s bombardment of the Strip continues regardless.
Analysts say Hamas is likely looking to put pressure on Israel by using this action to appeal to US President Donald Trump, and show that the group is committed to handing over governance and allowing the peaceful rebuilding of a devastated Gaza.
“We hope that this important step on the ground will help bring an end to the aggression, stop the genocide, secure the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip, reopen the crossings to allow the entry of aid trucks and end the policy of starvation,” Ismail al-Thawabta, general director of the Government Media Office, told Al Jazeera on Monday, following a major press briefing.
At least 1,005 people have been killed in Gaza since the US-brokered ceasefire was agreed in October 2025, and at least 73,098 people have been killed in total since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.
Furthermore, Israel continues to control about 70 percent of the besieged Strip, crowding Palestinians into the tiny, congested areas that remain.
Here’s what we know about Hamas’s latest move and what the new Palestinian-run Gaza authority will look like.
What has Hamas announced?
Speaking to journalists in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, al-Thawabta said Hamas’s head of administration, Mohammed al-Farra, had resigned from his position on Monday and that Hamas would be transferring power to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) – a Palestinian-run technical committee backed by the United Nations as part of the US-mediated ceasefire.
Al-Thawabta said only “technical and professional staff” would remain in their posts to keep day-to-day affairs in the Strip running. “All employees working in service provision are ‘state employees’ and are fully prepared to work under the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza,” he said.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem, meanwhile, called the move “a positive step forward on the path to implement the ceasefire deal”.
See also: Al Jazeera’s Timeline: 20 years of Hamas rule in Gaza, from election to political exit