Hamas officially dissolves Gaza governing body for first time in nearly 20 years

Hamas has officially announced the dissolution of its governing body in Gaza, ending nearly two decades of rule. The move is expected to accelerate a transition to a technocrat-led committee tasked with managing civilian affairs in postwar Gaza.

Hamas's media office said Monday that Mohamed al-Farra had submitted his formal resignation as head of the emergency government committee, and that the committee had been dissolved to facilitate a smooth transfer of administrative authority and power to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, known as NCAG.

The emergency committee was a temporary administrative body that Hamas stood up in the early days of the Gaza war — triggered by Hamas's surprise attack on Israel in October 2023 — after existing Hamas government ministries, police and other administrative infrastructure were rendered inoperable.

Hamas said all civil servants were ready to work under the NCAG and would continue providing administrative services as usual, adding that all administrative procedures required for the transfer of power had been completed.

The NCAG, which will now take charge of security and administration in Gaza, was established by a Board of Peace that Donald Trump set up while brokering the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas last October. The body, led by Dr. Ali Sha'ath, takes the form of a civilian technocratic government.

Hamas's move is widely read as a symbolic gesture signaling its willingness to hand over administrative control of Gaza to the NCAG, in line with Trump's postwar vision for the territory. The NCAG had previously been unable to assume power in Gaza, partly because Hamas refused to disarm. Hamas had also delayed the handover, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deliberately stalling implementation of and negotiations over the Trump peace plan ahead of Israel's general election scheduled for October.

With Hamas now formally dissolving its governing body, Gaza's political landscape has entered a new phase. NCAG members held a preliminary meeting in Cyprus last week to prepare for their administrative duties and to discuss ways to ease the suffering of Gaza's residents.

Significant obstacles remain, however. Under Trump's postwar blueprint for Gaza, Israeli forces would withdraw only after the complete disarmament of all armed groups in the territory has been fully verified. While Hamas has declared a transfer of administrative authority, it has said it will not lay down its weapons until a fully independent Palestinian state is established, raising the prospect of friction during any future disarmament verification process.

The dismantling of Hamas's Gaza governing body is in effect the first such move since the group seized control of the territory by force in 2007. Hamas won the Palestinian general election in 2006 and briefly formed an uneasy unity government with Fatah, which currently governs the West Bank, before driving Fatah forces out entirely following bloody factional clashes in June of the following year and establishing sole control over Gaza.