Since Hamas took Gaza in June 2007 the PA has governed in parts of the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza. The 2025 plan bars Hamas from governing and gives Gaza to a Board of Peace until the PA completes reform, so neither rival governs Gaza in the arrangement the Council endorsed.
A symmetric arrangement: it reads the same from either side. Authored once, on one record.
The arrangement
- Status
- ActiveIn force and operating. Says nothing about how well it is working, or about which way it is heading.Last material change: 2025-11-17.
- What it covers
- InstitutionalDiplomaticCategories the arrangement is documented to include. Not a measure: a relationship covering more of them is described in more detail, not held more firmly.
Summary
Hamas won the 2006 legislative election and took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after fighting with Fatah-aligned forces; the PA president dismissed the Hamas-led government, and the PA has governed in parts of the West Bank since. No reconciliation agreement since has reunified the two. The US plan endorsed by Resolution 2803 excludes Hamas from any governance role and places Gaza's interim administration with the Board of Peace until the PA "has satisfactorily completed its reform program" (OP2). The technocratic committee the Board formed is made up, its report says, of commissioners "approved by consensus among Palestinian factions"; it has not entered Gaza. The Board opened a liaison office with the PA on 20 February 2026. In the West Bank the PA ran its own operation against armed formations in Jenin camp from December 2024 to January 2025, in which OHCHR records nine residents and six PA security personnel killed. On 10 October 2026 the PA president postponed presidential and legislative elections to 11 September 2027, with the PLO Executive Committee citing, among other reasons, the barring of electoral officials from Gaza.
Why it matters
Who governs Gaza after the war is the political question the 2025 arrangements leave open, and the Palestinian answer is split. The PA's path back runs through reform and the Board; Hamas's influence runs through the weapons it has not handed over; and with no election since 2006 neither holds a current electoral mandate.
Related events
- Hamas wins the Palestinian Legislative Council election 25 Jan 2006
Political
- Hamas takes control of the Gaza Strip Jun 2007
Political · Military
- Resolution 2803 endorses the Board of Peace and an International Stabilization Force 17 Nov 2025
Diplomatic · Political
- Palestinian presidential and legislative elections are postponed to September 2027 10 Oct 2026
Political
What remains unknown
- Reconciliation agreements between Fatah and Hamas have been signed several times since 2007; none was read for this record, and none is shown to be in force.
- The extent of Hamas's de facto control west of the Yellow Line (Gaza), and the PA's actual reach into Gaza's civil administration, are not established.
Readings the evidence also supports
- The relationship is also one of rival claimants to the same national representation who have repeatedly negotiated unity; "adversarial" here describes the governing split, not open armed conflict.
Listed because the record's own assessment is not the only one its sources permit — not as a hedge on the assessment above.
Watch questions this relationship bears on
Standing analytical questions whose evidence runs through this relationship, each with its latest review. Derived from the Watch object, never restated here.
All Levant relationships Open in Explore
Assessed as of — 2026-10-10 Last reviewed — 2026-10-11