Who is Amjad Shawa? Hamas and Palestinian Authority appoint new leader of board that will rule Gaza

Amjad Shawa was reportedly named by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority as the approved leader for the new technocratic board that will rule the Gaza Strip.

According to Israel Public Broadcaster KAN News, as cited by the Jerusalem Post, Shawa was approved as the new leader during a meeting last week between Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and Egyptian intelligence in Cairo.

However, his official appointment depends on the United States, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Who is Amjad Shawa?

Amjad Shawa is the director of the Palestinian NGO network which liaises with the United Nations and international humanitarian organisations.

Palestinian sources told KAN, “Amjad Shawa is pro-Hamas without being a Hamas man.”

On October 10, CBC news reported that Amjad Shawa is living in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza. But his heart, he said, is in Gaza City.

“People know that their homes were destroyed, but they will insist on going [back], to put their tents over the rubble of the homes,” he told Nil Köksal, host of CBC Radio’s As It Happens.

He left his home in the upscale Rimal neighborhood in the early days of the Israel-Hamas war and also returned there with his family in January.

Israel insists it will control security in Gaza

Israel insisted on Sunday that it will maintain control of security inside Gaza despite signing up to a US-brokered ceasefire that foresees the deployment of an international security force.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ministers Israel would decide for itself where and when to strike its foes and which countries would be allowed to send troops to police the truce.

"Israel is an independent state. We will defend ourselves by our own means and we will continue to determine our fate," Netanyahu said. "We do not seek anyone's approval for this. We control our security."

Under the terms of a US-brokered ceasefire, as Israeli forces withdraw after the end of two years of brutal fighting against Hamas, an international force, expected to be drawn from mainly Arab or Muslim countries, is supposed to secure Gaza.

But Israel opposes any role for its regional rival Turkey and Netanyahu, under fire from hardliners in his own coalition for even agreeing the ceasefire, took a stern line on Sunday as government ministers met in Jerusalem.

"We made clear with respect to international forces that Israel will determine which forces are unacceptable to us," he said, one day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wound up the latest in a parade of high-level visits by Washington officials.

(With inputs from AFP)