GAZA, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- The minister of culture in the Palestinian consensus government took over on Sunday the building of the culture ministry in Gaza, the ministry said in an official statement.
The statement, emailed to reporters, said that minister of culture Ihab Bseiso, who arrived earlier Sunday in Gaza coming from the West Bank city of Ramallah, had visited the ministry of culture in Gaza City and handed it over.
Right after a short ceremony of receiving the ministry of culture, which has been under Islamic Hamas movement's rule for more than ten years, Bseiso held a meeting for all the ministry's stuff.
The culture ministry is the first in the consensus government to be handed over back to the government.
On Monday, PM Hamdallah will arrive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to receive control on the rest of his government's ministries.
Handing over the ministries in the Gaza Strip to the consensus government was part of an agreement reached between Hamas movement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah Party in Cairo last month.
Hamas had announced that it decided to dissolve the Administrative Committee it had formed to run the daily life of more than 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Forming the committee provoked and outraged President Abbas.
In return, he took a series of "punitive" measures against Hamas and the Gaza Strip related to providing daily energy, medical and salaries services. Abbas conditioned that measures will be lifted if Hamas dissolve the committee.
Hamas formed the committee as an alternative to the consensus government of Hamdallah, which was formed in June 2014. Hamas said it formed the committee after Hamdallah's government turned its back to Gaza and ignored its employees.
