Palestinian Authority announces new Cabinet as it faces calls for reform

The Palestinian Authority has announced the formation of a new Cabinet as it faces international pressure to reform.

President Mahmoud Abbas, who has led the PA for nearly two decades and remains in overall control, announced the new government in a presidential decree on Thursday. None of the incoming ministers is a well-known figure.

Abbas tapped Mohammad Mustafa, a longtime adviser, to be prime minister earlier this month. Mustafa, a politically independent US-educated economist, had vowed to form a technocratic government and create an independent trust fund to help rebuild Gaza.

The PA administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Its forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas seized power in 2007, and it has no power there.

The United States has called for a revitalised PA to administer postwar Gaza ahead of eventual statehood.

Israel has rejected that idea, saying it will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza.

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