CAIRO, February 26. /TASS/. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has accepted Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh’s resignation, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

According to the news agency, Abbas has already signed the relevant order. Shtayyeh and his government will continue to serve until a new government is formed. The agency said that Shtayyeh tendered his resignation during a meeting with Abbas in Ramallah on Monday, but Shtayyeh said that he did this last Tuesday.

Shtayyeh announced his government’s resignation on Monday morning, praising his government for reaching a balance between popular expectations and defending the rights of the Palestinian people, despite the challenges facing it amid the new spiral of escalation in Gaza.

On Sunday, the Lebanese Al Mayadeen television channel said, citing a source in the Abbas administration, the Ramallah-based Palestinian government would resign on Monday but remain in place until a new government was formed. According to the TV channel, Abbas had to take this step due to pressure from a number of regional players and the United States. The next step toward forming a new government is supposed to be a national consensus involving all Palestinian groups, including Hamas.

Ayman Al-Raqab, a member of the governing wing of Fatah, one of the main factions within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told TASS on February 21 that Palestinian movements would meet in Moscow in late February in a bid to try to reach an agreement on a unified Palestinian government of technocrats.