Only 18 days after being appointed to the position, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah submitted his resignation to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday due to a conflict over power.
It remains unclear who will take up the position.
"It looks as though Abbas will be in charge of the interim government until a new prime minister is appointed," a senior aide to Abbas told Israel Hayom.
Hamdallah took office June 6 after unexpectedly being plucked by Abbas from a career in academia to replace internationally known Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who resigned in April. Abbas gave Hamdallah two deputies, Ziad Abu Amr for political affairs and Mohammad Mustafa for economic affairs, apparently to make up for his lack of political experience.
Sources close to Hamdallah, who until his appointment as prime minister served as the president of An-Najah National University in Nablus, said he decided to resign because of serious clashes with the two deputies.
"Hamdallah decided to quit two weeks ago, after the first government meeting on June 11, after he found out that the majority of his powers as prime minister had been taken away from him -- primarily control of the Palestinian Authority's security forces," a senior official in Abbas' office said.
The official also said that Hamdallah arrived at Abbas' office on Thursday with his resignation letter.
"He even asked to leave his official car, and returned home with his private vehicle without his driver or personal guards," the official said.
Shortly after Hamdallah resigned, Palestinian Authority spokesman Ihab Basiso confirmed the resignation and said the reason was "the insubordination of the prime minister's deputies. This resignation was not expected and surprised all of us. The president has yet to read the letter and it remains unclear whether he will accept Hamdallah's request to resign."
However, officials in the Palestinian Authority said that Abbas was not likely to make great efforts to keep Hamdallah in office.
"It is possible that the surprise resignation actually paved the way for the candidate Abbas has wanted to in the first place, Mohammad Mustafa," an official said.
A Hamas member of the Gaza Strip parliament, Salah al-Bardawil, said, "His [Hamdallah's] quick resignation is concrete proof of the discord and disagreement in the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah."
The prime minister heads the Palestinian Authority and handles day-to-day affairs of Palestinians.
Abbas is in charge overall and deals with diplomacy, particularly efforts to restart negotiations with Israel, which broke down in 2008. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been trying to restart them.
Abbas had frequently clashed with Fayyad, a political independent who served for six years and was respected by the West as a pragmatist. Leading figures of Abbas' Fatah movement clamored for Fayyad to be replaced, arguing that the prime minister should be close to Fatah. Hamdallah's appointment was seen as a bid by Abbas to consolidate power.
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