Palestinian Authority must run Gaza after war, prime minister says

RAMALLAH (Reuters) - The Palestinian Authority must be the sole governing power in Gaza after the war, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said on Wednesday, as expectations grew that a deal to halt fighting and start returning Israeli hostages was near.

Who will run Gaza after the war remains one of the great unanswered questions in the negotiations, which have focused on an immediate ceasefire and exchanging hostages still held in the enclave for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Speaking at a conference in Norway, Mustafa said pressure must continue to agree the ceasefire in Gaza and allow in more humanitarian aid for more than 2 million people facing a severe humanitarian crisis after 15 months of war.

Only the Palestinian Authority is legitimately placed to assume governance in the Gaza Strip after fighting ends and there should be no attempt to split Gaza off from the occupied West Bank as part of a Palestinian state, he said.

"While we are waiting for the ceasefire, it is important to stress that it won't be acceptable for any other entity to govern the Gaza Strip but the legitimate Palestinian leadership and the government of the state of Palestine," he told the conference, according to the text of his speech.

He said Norway's recognition last year of a Palestinian state under the Palestinian Authority was an important step towards the two-state solution backed in principle by most of the international community.

Israel has rejected any involvement by Hamas, which ran Gaza before the war, but it has been almost equally opposed to rule by the Palestinian Authority, the body set up under the Oslo interim peace accords three decades ago that has limited governing power in the West Bank.

Israeli officials accuse the PA of supporting attacks against Israel and say that broad support for Hamas among Palestinians outside Gaza means that any Palestinian state would inevitably be taken over by the Islamist group.

The PA, dominated by the Fatah faction created by former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, also faces opposition from rival faction Hamas, which drove the PA out of Gaza in 2007 after a brief civil war.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta, writing by James Mackenzie, editing by Ros Russell)