Mohammad Mustafa, a longtime economic adviser of President Mahmoud Abbas, has been named as the new prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the state-run news agency WAFA reported Thursday.
Mustafa's appointment comes after mounting pressure to reform the governing body of the occupied Palestinian territories and improve its governance in the occupied West Bank where they are based.
A U.S.-educated economist and political independent, the new prime minister was assigned to lead the relief and rebuilding of the Gaza Strip, and reform the institutions of the Palestinian Authority, WAFA added.
Mustafa replaces former Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, who, along with his government, resigned in February, saying different arrangements were needed because of the "new reality in the Gaza Strip."
Shtayyeh's resignation came as growing Israeli violence worsened the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority, under the leadership of Abbas, administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The most important faction within it is the Fatah movement, which is also led by Abbas.
The Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which is fighting Israel in Gaza, is not a member.
Mustafa was born in the West Bank town of Tulkarem in 1954 and earned a doctorate in business administration and economics from George Washington University.
He has held senior positions at the World Bank and previously served as deputy prime minister and economy minister. He is currently the head of the Palestine Investment Fund.
According to the U.S., a fundamentally reformed PA is to administer the Gaza Strip after the end of the Gaza war.
Israel vehemently rejects this plan as it does not want to see either Hamas or a Fatah-led PA as the governing power in Gaza.
Since 2007, control of the Palestinian territories has been divided between Abbas's Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has killed more than 31,300 people, most of them children and women, in Gaza since Oct. 7 after Hamas launched a surprise attack, which killed around 1,160 people.
During the conflict, violence in the West Bank has flared to levels unseen in nearly two decades.
Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 430 Palestinians in the West Bank since the conflict began, according to local health officials.
The United States and other powers have called for a reformed Palestinian Authority to take charge of all Palestinian territories after the end of the war.
