Government Follow-up Committee (Gaza)
In the wake of the June 2007 Palestinian civil war, the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas took over Palestinian Authority (PA) institutions in the Gaza Strip, establishing a de facto government led by Ismail Haniyeh (who had previously served as PA prime minister following Hamas’s victory in the 2006 legislative elections).
Hamas’s de facto government was eventually dissolved in 2014 as part of the ‘Shati’ reconciliation agreement with President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party as a prelude to the PA’s return to Gaza. However, with the failure of subsequent Palestinian reconciliation efforts, Hamas created a new “Administrative Committee” to govern Gaza under its auspices in March 2017, composed of 7 members managing 14 ministries.
One year later, following the failure of another intra-Palestinian reconciliation efforts, Hamas formed a “Government Follow-up Committee” with an expanded membership of 24 deputy ministers and administrative heads which remains in place to this day. While some are affiliated with the group others are considered independent technocrats. Several of its members have been killed during the 2023-2025 Israel-Gaza war.
The Government Follow-up Committee is currently headed by Hamas’s Essam al-Dalis. It is responsible for running civil and security affairs in Gaza and managing 42,000-45,000 civil servants. The overwhelming majority of those civil servants (including police officers) were vetted and cleared by Israel to receive Qatari-funded salaries in 2019 as part of the ceasefire understanding reached between Hamas and Israel in 2018. While some of Gaza’s civil servants belong to Hamas, many are affiliated with other Palestinian factions or politically independent.
Committee Members:
- Essam al-Dalis: Chairman
- Ihab al-Ghussein*: Deputy Minister of Labour (killed 7 July 2024)
- Abdul Fattah al-Zurai’i*: Deputy Minister of Economy (killed 4 August 2024)
- Ahmed al-Hatta*: Deputy Minister of Justice (killed 10 August 2024)
- Muhammad Abu Saada*: Director General of Endowments and Religious Affairs (killed 10 August 2024)
- Ghazi Hamad: Deputy Minister of Social Development
- Jawad al-Agha: Deputy Minister of Housing and Public Works
- Nasser Musleh: Deputy Minister of Interior
- Yousef al-Kayali: Deputy Minister of Finance
- Samir Matar: Deputy Minister of Local Government
- Ayman al-Yazouri: Deputy Minister of Agriculture
- Khaled Abu Nada: Deputy Minister of Education
- Kanaan Obeid: Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Authority
- Hassan al-Sayfi: Head of the Board of Grievances
- Yousef Ibrahim: Head of the Water and Environment Authority
- Amira Haroun: Deputy Minister of Women
- Mohammed Khala: Deputy Minister of Tourism
- Suhail Madoukh: Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology
- Yousef Abu al-Rish: Deputy Minister of Health
- Major General Salah al-Din Abu Sharkh: Deputy Minister of Communications and Public Transport
- Ahmed Muhaisen: Deputy Minister of Culture; Minister of Youth and Sport
- Abdul Hadi al-Agha: Deputy Minister for Endowments and Religious Affairs
- Baha Al-Din al-Madhoun: Deputy Minister for Detainees
- Salama Maarouf: Deputy Minister of Information; Head of the Government Media Office