Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed one of his supporters, economist Mohammad Mustafa, as prime minister as the weakened Palestinian Authority prepares for a post-war Gaza era, AFP reports.

Mustafa, 69, previously headed the Palestine Investment Fund. A former economic adviser to President Abbas, he held senior positions at the World Bank in Washington for 15 years.

This international civil servant takes up his post at the height of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In late February, Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayeh resigned from his government, arguing that a new policy was needed that would take into account the “new reality in Gaza” and the “urgent need for an inter-Palestinian consensus.”

A few days later, various Palestinian movements, including rivals Hamas and Fatah, the party of Mahmoud Abbas, met in Moscow and announced their intention to resume negotiations to “unite” their voices under the banner of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Since the June 2007 fratricidal clashes, Palestinian leadership has been divided between the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, which exercises limited power in the West Bank, a territory occupied by Israel since 1967, and Hamas in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

In recent months, many Palestinians have criticized 88-year-old President Abbas, last elected in 2005, for his “impotence” in the face of Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip.

The question of the role of the Palestinian Authority at the end of the war remains a big mystery because of its limited influence and the refusal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to envision a future Palestinian state.