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Ali Shaath Appointed Head of Gaza Administration Committee: What Do We Know About Him?

Palestinian Ali Shaath, the leading candidate for the chairmanship of the Gaza Administration Committee (photo released by his family). 
Palestinian Ali Shaath, the leading candidate for the chairmanship of the Gaza Administration Committee (photo released by his family). 
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Ali Shaath Appointed Head of Gaza Administration Committee: What Do We Know About Him?

Palestinian Ali Shaath, the leading candidate for the chairmanship of the Gaza Administration Committee (photo released by his family). 
Palestinian Ali Shaath, the leading candidate for the chairmanship of the Gaza Administration Committee (photo released by his family). 

Mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Türkiye announced on Wednesday the formation of a Palestinian technocratic committee to administer the Gaza Strip, headed by Ali Shaath. The move follows changes to the committee’s membership and broader political maneuvering that point to an imminent transfer of governance from Hamas.

Earlier on Wednesday, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff announced the launch of “Phase Two of President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the conflict in Gaza,” saying it marks a shift “from a ceasefire to disarmament, technocratic governance, and reconstruction.”

The plan calls for the establishment of a technocratic body to oversee governmental and civilian affairs in Gaza as an alternative to Hamas rule.

While several well-known figures had previously been mentioned as potential leaders, Gaza residents and observers were surprised by the emergence of new names. Among those reported by Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday evening was Ali Shaath, who has since emerged as the leading candidate to chair the committee.

Who Is Ali Shaath?

Ali Shaath was born in 1958 in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, into a prominent Palestinian family and large clan with a long record of national and political engagement. Many members of his family are affiliated with Fatah.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Ain Shams University in Cairo in 1982, a master’s degree in 1986, and a PhD in civil engineering from Queen’s University in the United Kingdom in 1989, specializing in infrastructure planning and urban development.

Shaath has held several senior posts within the Palestinian Authority and is widely regarded as a technical expert rather than a political figure. Early in the Authority’s formation, he served as deputy to then–Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath, helping draft strategic development plans for a future Palestinian state.

He later served as undersecretary at the Ministry of Transport, overseeing major infrastructure and road projects. He went on to lead the Palestinian Industrial Estates and Free Zones Authority, chair the Palestinian Housing Council, head the Palestinian Ports Authority, and advise the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR). Most recently, despite retirement, he served as an adviser to the Ministry of Housing and Public Works.

Politically, Shaath participated in final-status negotiation committees in 2005 and contributed as a technical expert on border and maritime access issues. His background in economic development and postwar reconstruction appears to have positioned him to lead the technocratic committee.

Sources close to the Shaath family told Asharq Al-Awsat that he has lived in the West Bank for years, including before the Gaza war, and has consistently avoided factional politics, focusing instead on technical and professional roles.

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Arab World

Israeli Gunfire Kills Two People in South Lebanon

The rubble of a collapsed building is pictured following Israeli bombardment, in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon on June 21, 2026. (AFP)
The rubble of a collapsed building is pictured following Israeli bombardment, in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon on June 21, 2026. (AFP)
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Israeli Gunfire Kills Two People in South Lebanon

The rubble of a collapsed building is pictured following Israeli bombardment, in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon on June 21, 2026. (AFP)
The rubble of a collapsed building is pictured following Israeli bombardment, in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon on June 21, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli gunfire killed two people in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, Lebanon's Civil Defense and state media said, the first reported fatalities resulting from Israeli fire in Lebanon in three days. 

A ceasefire between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israeli forces in southern Lebanon has largely held since Sunday, the longest lull yet in the war that spilled over from the conflict between the ‌United States ‌and Iran. 

Israeli soldiers opened fire ‌at ⁠a group of ⁠people near a bulldozer clearing a road in the al-Deir neighborhood of Nabatieh al-Fawqa in southern Lebanon, Lebanon's state news agency NNA reported. 

The Israeli military said it was checking the report. 

Iran insisted Israel cease fire in Lebanon ⁠as part of an interim agreement with ‌the United States ‌signed last week. 

A joint statement issued on Monday ‌at the end of US-Iranian talks mediated by ‌Pakistan and Qatar in Switzerland said the parties had agreed to create "a de-confliction cell" to ensure adherence to the termination of hostilities in Lebanon. 

Since Hezbollah ‌opened fire on Israel in support of Iran on March 2, Israeli ⁠attacks ⁠in Lebanon have killed more than 4,100 people, including 773 women, children and healthcare workers, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The toll does not say how many combatants are among the dead. 

Israeli attacks have forced some 1.2 million people from their homes in Lebanon, according to Lebanese authorities. 

Israel's death toll from this round of hostilities with Hezbollah includes at least 32 soldiers and four Israeli civilians.  

Arab World

UN Probe: Israel's 'Deliberate Targeting' of Children Part of Ongoing Gaza 'Genocide'

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Raghad Hassan Ashour, 16, during her funeral at Al-Shifa Hospital after she was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Monday June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Raghad Hassan Ashour, 16, during her funeral at Al-Shifa Hospital after she was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Monday June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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UN Probe: Israel's 'Deliberate Targeting' of Children Part of Ongoing Gaza 'Genocide'

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Raghad Hassan Ashour, 16, during her funeral at Al-Shifa Hospital after she was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Monday June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Raghad Hassan Ashour, 16, during her funeral at Al-Shifa Hospital after she was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Monday June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israel is deliberately targeting Palestinian children in what has become a key factor in an ongoing "genocide" in Gaza, United Nations investigators charged on Tuesday, in a report slammed by Israel.

According to AFP, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry said it had found evidence that "Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli security forces.”

This, it said, was a key factor in establishing "the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza.”

The three-member investigative team, which does not speak for the UN itself, first determined in a report last September that Israel had committed "genocide" in the war in Gaza -- a finding Israel flatly rejected.

In Tuesday's follow-up report, they said the intense scale and systematic nature of Israeli military operations had continued, resulting in the "unprecedented" death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children.

There were "reasonable grounds" to conclude that Israel's authorities and security forces "have continued to commit the crime of genocide" in Gaza, they said.

Israel, which has long been harshly critical of the commission, slammed the report as "defamatory" and a "libelous sham.”

It accused the investigators of ignoring "the brutal tactics of Hamas, which ruthlessly attacks Israeli children and uses Palestinian children as human shields.”

The commission, which was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, examined for its latest report crimes affecting Palestinian children, and how living conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza were "resulting in preventable mortality of children.”

"Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, and war crimes in the West Bank," the team said in a statement.

The commission said that severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation, and the collapse of education and healthcare had "erased childhood" in Gaza and would continue to affect the territory's children throughout their lives.

"By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future," said Indian judge Srinivasan Muralidhar, who chairs the inquiry.

"Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured."

The report comes days after the UN children's agency UNICEF said at least 265 children had been killed and hundreds more wounded in Gaza since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect.

UNICEF said children had been shot, bombed and struck by quadcopters, killed in tents, in schools and while playing football or fishing.

The Hamas October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory response in Gaza has killed more than 72,800 people, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

The UN inquiry said that during the first two years of the war at least 20,179 children were killed and 44,143 injured "as a direct result of the hostilities in Gaza.”

The killing and maiming of Palestinian children "was part of a strategy to destroy the biological continuity and future existence of the Palestinian group in Gaza", it said.

By targeting children, the report said, "Israel is eroding the foundational structure of Palestinian society, weakening the demographic vitality.”

Israel was responsible for causing a "severe orphan crisis,” while wounded youngsters "face a lifetime of disability" -- now "a defining demographic reality" among Gaza's children, it said.

The siege of Gaza "directly undermined reproductive and newborn health,” while the collapse of public health programs "eroded the conditions necessary for a healthy next generation.”

The report listed Israeli divisions, brigades and units that may be responsible for killing children, in specific incidents in Gaza and the West Bank.

Besides Gaza, the commission also documented a sharp increase in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

The commission urged all UN member states, including Israel, to ensure accountability for crimes committed.

Arab World

Russian Delegation, Libya’s GNA Discuss Investment Opportunities

The visit aimed to review the economic and investment potential offered by the free zone and the opportunities available for cooperation and partnership. Photo: Misurata Free Zone
The visit aimed to review the economic and investment potential offered by the free zone and the opportunities available for cooperation and partnership. Photo: Misurata Free Zone
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Russian Delegation, Libya’s GNA Discuss Investment Opportunities

The visit aimed to review the economic and investment potential offered by the free zone and the opportunities available for cooperation and partnership. Photo: Misurata Free Zone
The visit aimed to review the economic and investment potential offered by the free zone and the opportunities available for cooperation and partnership. Photo: Misurata Free Zone

Libyan officials have discussed with a high-ranking Russian economic delegation mechanisms to strengthen investment and trade cooperation, as well as the reactivation of the Libyan-Russian joint committee.

Chairman of the Management Committee of the Misurata Free Zone (MFZ) in Libya Mohsen Al-Suqutri met on Monday with Russia’s Ambassador to Libya, Aydar Aganin, in the presence of Libya’s ambassador to Moscow, Emhemed Almaghrawi.

The visit aimed to review the economic and investment potential offered by the free zone and the opportunities available for cooperation and partnership.

The Russian delegation included several businessmen, as well as heads and representatives of companies and institutions active in industrial, commercial, investment, and scientific research sectors.

The Russian ambassador praised the strategic geographic location of the Misurata Free Zone, considering it an important hub connecting regional and international markets, and highlighting its attractiveness for investment in light and heavy industries and other sectors.

Both sides discussed opportunities for economic and investment cooperation and the possibility of establishing partnerships and projects that would contribute to boosting economic development and expanding areas of collaboration between the two countries.

The Minister of Transport and financial adviser to the prime minister in the Government of National Unity (GNA), Mohamed Al-Shahoubi, met with the Russian economic delegation in Tripoli.

The meeting was attended by several ministry officials, the Libyan and Russian ambassadors, as well as representatives from the ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation.

The meeting addressed several issues of mutual interest, particularly in the sectors of transportation, infrastructure, and logistics services. It also explored opportunities for economic and investment cooperation that would serve shared interests and strengthen the partnership between the two countries.

The two sides also discussed mechanisms for reviving the Libyan-Russian joint committee, in a way that would help advance cooperation and activate agreements and memoranda of understanding previously signed between Libya and Russia.

The conferees stressed the importance of continued coordination, consultation, and exchange of expertise in support of development efforts, and to enhance the transport sector and economic relations between the two states.