Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamdallah has tendered his resignation and that of his unity government to President Mahmoud Abbas, he said on Tuesday, dealing a blow to faltering reconciliation efforts with Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas. Abbas said in a statement that he accepted the resignation and that the government will “continue its duties until the new government is formed.” A Hamas official condemned the move as an attempt to marginalize and exclude the group from Palestinian politics. Hamdallah, a little-known academic, headed the national unity government formed in 2014 and led the West Bank-based Fatah’s reconciliation efforts with Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007. The two groups signed a reconciliation deal two years ago which set in motion a plan for Abbas’s Palestinian Authority to resume governing in Gaza and take control of the coastal enclave’s crossing points into Egypt and Israel. But disputes over power-sharing and policy toward Israel have hampered the deal’s implementation. “The president will begin consultation to form a political government made up by factions of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) that will prepare for the holding of new parliamentary election,” Abbas said. Published in Daily Times, January 30th 2019.