GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah is urging donors and international institutions to help the Palestinian Authority (PA) “invest, work and move freely” in the West Bank’s Area C, which Israel controls.

Hamdallah briefed the Council of Ministers on Oct. 2 in Ramallah on the outcome of the Sept. 26-27 meetings of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee — which coordinates development aid to Palestinians — held at UN headquarters in New York. The official Wafa news agency quoted him as saying, “We will be able to count on ourselves and depend less on donors when the PA is enabled to invest in Area C.”

The 1995 Oslo II Accord divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and C. While the PA has security and administrative control over Area A, it only has administrative control over Area B, which is under Israeli security control. The accord gave Israel full administrative and security control over Area C, which consists of 61% of the West Bank, which has many natural resources and a lot of agricultural land.

The deputy economy minister, Manal Farhan, told Al-Monitor, “Urban sprawl and population growth continue to lead to less and less land in Areas A and B, which is why Palestinians need investment and agriculture [projects] in Area C. In this regard, genuine international pressure is required to force Israel to approve investments in our occupied land.”