Can the Palestinian Authority control Gaza if Hamas is ousted?

livemint.com:

invade Gaza, one question keeps coming up: who should take control of it after they have rooted out Hamas—if, indeed, they are able to do so? Many, especially Israel’s allies, are looking to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was thrown out of Gaza by Hamas almost two years after Israel withdrew its troops and dismantled its settlements there in 2005. But the PA seems to be in no position to take charge of the coastal enclave.

In fact there are no guarantees that by the end of this war it will even be in control of Ramallah, the de facto capital city of the West Bank. Born out of the Oslo Accords of 1993, the PA was supposed to be the basis of a future Palestinian state.

But as the prospects of that state’s establishment have receded, so has confidence in the PA, which is led by the 87-year-old Mahmoud Abbas (pictured) and is widely seen by Palestinians as corrupt and incompetent. Mr Abbas was elected to serve a four-year presidential term in 2005—and has been there ever since.

“There is not really a whole lot left in the legitimacy tank of the PA," says Salam Fayad, a former prime minister of the PA. “Unless they really change course very rapidly, the whole thing could fall." Partly because it has been unable to protect Palestinian civilians on the West Bank from attacks by Israeli settlers or halt the expansion of Israeli settlements, the PA has lost control of security in swathes of the West Bank to militant groups such as Kata’ib Jenin and the Lions’ Den in Nablus in recent years.

The slaughter of 1,400 Israelis by Hamas on October 7th, Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Hamas in Gaza, and a sharp increase in attacks by settlers have all pushed it into an even more precarious position. In a poll in September, 53%