Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas formally accepted the resignation of his newly-installed prime minister Rami Hamdallah after just more than two weeks on the job, according to a source.

Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas formally accepted the resignation of his newly-installed prime minister Rami Hamdallah after just more than two weeks on the job, according to a source.

"President Abbas has accepted the resignation of Hamdallah after he refused to work with two deputies," a senior source told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
"He asked him to stay on in a caretaker role until he chooses someone else to form a new government."

The crisis erupted on Thursday when Hamdallah unexpectedly tendered his resignation over what government officials said was a "power struggle" resulting from Abbas's decision to install two deputies working directly under him.

At a meeting with Abbas on Friday, Hamdallah had withdrawn his resignation, a high ranking government official said, but after a further meeting on Sunday morning, the president decided he would accept it.

"Hamdallah initially agreed to withdraw his resignation (on Friday) but he insisted yesterday during a meeting with the president on either not having any deputies, or having deputies with restricted powers," the source said.

"This led to a sharpening of the dispute over the powers of the prime minister, which ended up with the president accepting his resignation."