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UNRWA commissioner general sees risks for Palestine

Philippe Lazzarini urged efforts to "redouble commitment to a political process" as he said he was not confident if the Gaza ceasefire would be maintained or how the enclave would be governed

DUBAI, February 17. /TASS/. Palestine may cease to exist should Israel try to annex the West Bank, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), opined in an interview with the UAE daily.

"There is a risk that there would not be a Palestine. There is a risk of annexation of the West Bank, there is a risk that the West Bank becomes, what we keep hearing, Judea-Samaria, part of a greater Israel. That would indeed be the end of the aspiration of the Palestinians for self-determination, it would be the end of a two-state solution," he told The National News.

Lazzarini urged efforts to "redouble commitment to a political process" as he said he was not confident if the Gaza ceasefire would be maintained or how the enclave would be governed.

Earlier, Sky News Arabia reported that the radical Hamas movement had sent a letter to the Palestine Liberation Organization notifying it of its willingness to hand over the Gaza Strip under control of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and a government committee. The Egyptian TV channel Al-Kahira al-Ikhbariya reported on February 15 citing a source that Hamas notified the mediators that it intends to comply with the ceasefire agreement with Israel and is not going to participate in the administration of the Gaza Strip in the future.

In 2005, as part of a unilateral disengagement plan, Israel completely withdrew its troops from the Palestinian enclave and evacuated Jewish settlements. Control over Gaza was transferred to the Mahmoud Abbas-led PNA, which also ruled the West Bank of the Jordan River. However, the first parliamentary elections were won by representatives of Hamas, who clashed with the more moderate Fatah movement, which led to a split between the factions. The radicals established full control over the sector, while their opponents have retained power in the West Bank. Recently, Abbas and his supporters have repeatedly said that their desire to restore the PA’s jurisdiction over Gaza, but Hamas has not yet officially agreed to this.

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