Insisting the move was not part of the anticipated Ramallah-based government cabinet shuffle, officials said Sunday that the ministries of information and sport were replaced with "higher councils."

Caretaker government spokesperson Ghassan Al-Khatib told Ma’an that the ministries of sport and information were dismantled during the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, and replaced with two higher councils for sport and information respectively.

Explaining the move, Al-Khatib said "a higher council for information means the body will be a non-governmental entity in charge of organizing media and communications from the government, mirroring systems in much of the world." He said the same distinction applied to the new Higher Council for Sport, noting it would be a community-based entity monitoring and organizing sport institutions in Palestine.

Appointments were not made to either ministry during the last cabinet shuffle, with the latest move appearing to formalize institutions to excise the roles from government oversight.