<span style="color: #222222;">A new government for the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority has been sworn-in. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">President Mahmoud Abbas picked Mohammed Ishtayeh as the Prime Minister, a move that is being said to have deepened the internal Palestinian divide at a time when prospects for a peace deal with Israel are possibly at their lowest point ever. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">A longtime adviser to Abbas and a senior member of his Fatah party, Ishtayeh and his 24-member cabinet took the oath of office at Abbas' headquarters in Ramallah.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The new cabinet replaces a technocratic government formed by Rami Hamdallah in 2014 after an agreement between Fatah and Hamas, the militant group that has run the Gaza Strip after ousting Fatah and evicting the Palestinian Authority in 2007. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov has expressed hoped that the new government would receive support to overcome internal divisions.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Last year, US recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, triggering the Palestinian Authority to sever its ties with Washington.</span><br />''