Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree on Thursday scheduling legislative elections for 28 November, the first parliamentary vote since 2006, according to the official Wafa news agency. The announcement came three days after Hamas declared the dissolution of its Emergency Committee, the body that had governed the Gaza Strip since 2007, and stated its readiness to transfer civil administrative responsibilities to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG). The NCAG, a technocratic body backed by the US-led Peace Council and initially opposed by Ramallah, is expected to assume day-to-day governance in the territory under a formal agreement signed with the Palestinian Authority in January.

Hamas officials framed the handover as a step to honour the ceasefire agreement and to remove what a spokesman called pretexts for Israeli interference. A Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya travelled to Cairo this week to press for the transition to the second phase of the truce and to secure increased humanitarian aid. Viewed from Ramallah, the election call is presented as a response to sustained international donor pressure for institutional reform and accountability. Abbas, 90, has governed largely by presidential decree since his four-year mandate expired in 2009, and a previous attempt to hold elections in 2021 was abandoned after the Palestinian leadership said Israel had not guaranteed voting in East Jerusalem. Israeli media, as cited by Arab outlets, described the Hamas dissolution as a political manoeuvre, while a Fatah spokesman in Gaza called it a media message that did not reflect a genuine withdrawal from political control.

Regional analysts noted that the administrative reshuffle leaves unresolved the core question of disarmament. The US Peace Council has stated that the NCAG must consolidate all weapons under its authority, a principle Hamas has not publicly accepted. The Palestinian Authority’s ability to hold elections across the occupied territories also remains contingent on Israeli cooperation, particularly regarding ballot access in East Jerusalem, the same obstacle that derailed the 2021 vote. The NCAG, currently based in Cairo, has yet to establish full operational control on the ground, and thousands of Hamas-affiliated civil servants remain in their posts, according to Egyptian media reports.

In a separate development, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory called for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, who has been held without charge by Israel since December 2024. The commission stated it had received credible reports of torture and ill-treatment, and described the targeting of medical personnel as part of a coordinated policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system, acts it said amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination. The election decree sets a formal timeline, but its implementation hinges on parallel diplomatic tracks: the Cairo-mediated ceasefire negotiations, the operational deployment of the NCAG, and the unresolved status of East Jerusalem.