Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed his first “post-war” plan with Hamas, including maintaining Israel's “security control” in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, an option rejected by Hamas. Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
• Also read: Gaza: New attacks against Rafah, ceasefire talks underway
• Also read: The Israeli parliament votes overwhelmingly against unilateral recognition of the Palestinian state
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also responded by reiterating US opposition to a “re-occupation” of the Gaza Strip.
The document, which Mr. Netanyahu presented to the government's security cabinet on Thursday evening and which AFP was able to view on Friday, recalls in the preamble in several points the goals of the army in Gaza: the destruction of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the release of all hostages held.
The Israeli army “will exercise security control over the entire area west of Jordan, including the Gaza Strip” and “prevent the rise of terrorist elements there” and contain “threats against Israel,” the document said. Israel will “retain its operational freedom of action throughout the Gaza Strip without any time limit,” the document continued.
“Maintaining the Occupation”
On the strategic border between Egypt and the south of the Gaza Strip, where Hamas had dug tunnels to smuggle weapons for more than a decade, Israel would maintain a closure in “cooperation with Egypt and with the help of the United States” to prevent the rearmament to prevent Palestinian factions there, the document says.
Among other things, the “complete demilitarization of Gaza (…) beyond what is necessary to maintain order” and “the de-radicalization of all religious, educational and social institutions in Gaza”.
Like the project unveiled in early January by his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Netanyahu's plan calls for handing over administration of the Gaza Strip to “local officials with administrative experience” who are “not affiliated with supporting countries or organizations.” Terrorism.
The project does not mention Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority, rival to Hamas' Islamists in the occupied West Bank, but explicitly excludes its involvement in the administration of the Gaza Strip. Above all, the plan does not envisage the creation of an independent state of Palestine, a perspective advocated by Washington, London and Paris.
“The plans proposed by Mr. Netanyahu are aimed at maintaining the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state,” reacted on Friday Nabil Abou Roudeina, spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas.
Only a plan that recognizes Gaza as an integral part of “an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital will be acceptable.” Any project to the contrary is doomed to failure. Israel will fail to change the geographical and demographic reality of the Gaza Strip,” he said in a statement.
For his part, a Hamas official in Beirut, Osama Hamdane, reiterated that the Israeli plan “will never succeed.”
The plan's announcement comes as talks intensify over a multi-week ceasefire in clashes in Gaza and the release of around 130 hostages still in Hamas hands.
An Israeli delegation led by the head of the foreign intelligence agency Mossad arrived on Friday in Paris, the latest venue for talks on the issue to advance an agreement.
Unrwa in focus
In addition, the Netanyahu plan calls for the dissolution of the United Nations Agency for Assistance to Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), whose employees were accused by Israel of being involved in the October 7 attack that killed about 1,160 people People, mostly civilians. The Israeli retaliatory offensive has so far killed more than 29,500 people in Gaza, mostly civilians.
The UN fired the employees accused by Israel and opened an internal investigation into UNRWA. Several countries have suspended funding for the agency.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini stressed on Thursday that the organization, the main source of aid for civilians in Gaza, had reached a breaking point with Israel's repeated calls for its dissolution and the freezing of funds for donors in the face of humanitarian needs.
“I fear that we are on the brink of a monumental catastrophe with serious implications for peace, security and human rights in the region,” he added.