Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa formed the new government on Thursday in which he will also serve as foreign minister, replacing Riyad al-Maliki

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Thursday announced the formation of a new Cabinet as it faces international pressure to reform.

Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa formed the new cabinet in which he will also serve as foreign minister, replacing Riyad al-Maliki, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has led the PA for nearly two decades and remains in overall control, approved the new government, WAFA said. He announced the cabinet in a presidential decree on Thursday.

Abbas tapped Mustafa, a longtime adviser, to be prime minister earlier this month. He replaced Mohammed Shtayyeh, who, along with his government, resigned in February over the need for change amid Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza and escalating violence in the occupied West Bank.

Mustafa, a politically independent US-educated economist, has vowed to form a technocratic government and create an independent trust fund to help rebuild Gaza.

He said in a cabinet statement addressed to Abbas that the first national priority is an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a complete Israeli withdrawal from the enclave, in addition to allowing humanitarian aid to enter in large quantities and reach all areas, WAFA reported.

“In order to enable the launch of the recovery process and preparation for reconstruction, stop the aggression and settlement activities, and curb settlers’ terrorism in the West Bank,” Mustafa said.

At least five of the incoming 23 ministers are from Gaza, but it was not immediately clear if they are still in the territory.

The PA administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and is dominated by Abbas’s secular Fatah movement. Its forces were driven from Gaza when Hamas seized power in 2007, and it has no power there.

It has little popular support or legitimacy among Palestinians, partly because it has not held elections in 18 years. Its policy of cooperating with Israel on security matters is extremely unpopular and has led many Palestinians to view it as a subcontractor of the occupation.

Opinion polls in recent years have consistently found that a vast majority of Palestinians want the 88-year-old Abbas to resign.

The United States has called for a revitalised PA to administer Gaza after the Israeli war on the Palestinian enclave ends.

Palestinian authorities say more than 32,000 people have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza since October 7. More than 80 percent of the territory’s 2.3 million population is displaced and in desperate need of aid.

Israel has rejected the US idea, saying it will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza and partner with Palestinians who are not affiliated with the PA or Hamas. It is unclear who in Gaza would be willing to take on such a role.

Hamas has rejected the formation of the new government as illegitimate, calling instead for all Palestinian factions, including Fatah, to form a power-sharing government ahead of national elections.

The militant group has warned Palestinians in Gaza against cooperating with Israel to administer the territory, saying anyone who does will be treated as a collaborator, which is understood as a death threat.