Israel-Gaza war
Washington wants concessions from the Netanyahu government as critics say the plans lack detail and commitment
Israeli officials are trying to address growing frustration in Washington ahead of a potentially difficult meeting between the top U.S. diplomat and Benjamin Netanyahu by offering a series of policy proposals on Gaza that critics say lack detail or commitment.
The U.S. has offered Israel vigorous support since the war with Hamas broke out three months ago, but is eager to get some concessions from Netanyahu to ease tensions in the region and avert a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, arrived in Turkey on Friday to begin a week-long Middle East trip. During his upcoming visit to Israel, Blinken is expected to pressure Netanyahu to do more to protect civilians in Gaza, allow more aid to the area and rein in outspoken far-right ministers who have called for mass relocation of Palestinians – Rhetoric that the US has condemned as inflammatory and irresponsible.
Netanyahu has also angered Washington by refusing to engage in detailed planning for Gaza's government when Israel's military offensive ends and by rejecting preferred U.S. options.
In recent days, senior Israeli ministers have rushed to put forward some postwar proposals, repeating earlier promises that the Israeli military would move to tactics that are less costly to civilians.
On Thursday, Israel's defense minister suggested that Israel would retain security control over Gaza, but that day-to-day management would be handled by an undefined Israeli-led Palestinian body and that the US, EU and regional partners would assume responsibility for rebuilding the territory .
About 85% of Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced, and many have been forced to move to an ever-smaller area to avoid Israeli airstrikes. Photo: Mohammed Sabre/EPA
Under Yoav Gallant's plan, the Israeli offensive in Gaza would continue until the hostages captured during Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel were released and Hamas's “military and governance capabilities” were dismantled.
A new phase would then begin in which unspecified Palestinian entities – apparently local officials or community leaders – would take over administration of the territory.
However, Israeli observers have noted that Gallant's proposals do not constitute official policy, have yet to be presented to other ministers, and are unlikely to work.
“The Israeli military presents its plan to politicians for consideration. It's a recipe for disaster. The idea that you want local Palestinians to take over your own government is the right approach, but you have to give them the choice,” said Mairav Zonszein, a senior Israel and Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group.
The plan outlined by Gallant differs markedly from US calls for a revived Palestinian Authority based in the occupied West Bank to also take control of Gaza and begin new negotiations to create a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
“We do not expect that every conversation on this trip will be easy…The region clearly faces difficult issues and difficult decisions,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Statements by Bezalel Smotrich calling on Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip were heavily criticized. Photo: Amir Cohen/Portal
The Biden administration has previously been credited with persuading Israel on several aid issues, including allowing limited fuel and commercial vehicles to enter the Gaza Strip. This week, Israeli officials proposed opening more entry points from Israel to allow more aid to reach the northern Gaza Strip.
Gallant also pointed to a more precise approach to targeting Hamas militants and their leaders, in what appeared to be another response to pressure from Washington.
The US has pushed Israel to move to less intensive military operations in the Gaza Strip that more specifically target Hamas, which took over the territory in 2007. In a rare public criticism, Biden warned last month that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing”.
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 22,400 people, more than two-thirds of them women and children, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Thousands more are said to have been buried under rubble and tens of thousands injured.
The offensive was launched after Hamas sent thousands of militants into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 240 others.
Gallant's statement said Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip would move to a “new combat approach” that would emphasize raids, the destruction of tunnels, “air and ground activities and special operations.”
It was not immediately clear how this might differ from current operations.
Palestinians said Israeli airstrikes and shelling had not abated since the announcement, with planes and tanks stepping up attacks on the densely populated areas of Maghazi, Bureij and Nuseirat in central Gaza.
In the southern Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians moved under Israeli advice, six Palestinians were killed in an attack on Khan Younis, local health authorities said.
Another concern for the Biden administration was calls from far-right members of Netanyahu's cabinet to encourage Palestinians to leave Gaza en masse.
On Sunday, Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister who was excluded from the war cabinet and discussions over the next day's agreements in Gaza, called on Palestinian residents of Gaza to leave the besieged enclave and make way for Israelis who are “the “Could make the desert bloom.” .
A day later, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said the conflict was an opportunity to “promote the migration of Gazans,” which he said was “a right, just, moral and humane solution.”
Such comments, coming amid unconfirmed reports in Israel of proposals to persuade other countries to accept large numbers of Palestinians, have raised fears across much of the Arab world that Israel wants to drive Palestinians from land where they hope to build a future state Mass dispossession of Palestinians in the wars surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.
Rwanda on Friday described reports by an Israeli news agency about talks between Rwanda and Israel over the transfer of Palestinians from Gaza as “completely false disinformation…” [that] should be ignored.”
Antony Blinken is trying to avert a major conflict in the region and seek reassurances during his visit to the Middle East. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein/Portal
Smotrich, whose far-right Religious Zionism party enjoys the support of Israel's settler community, has made similar comments in the past, angering the United States. Biden is believed to have made it clear to Netanyahu that he holds him responsible for the ministers' comments.
“We have stated clearly, consistently and unequivocally that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and no terrorist groups able to threaten Israel,” the State Department's Miller told reporters.
In another apparent attempt to reassure the U.S. as Blinken's visit approached, Gallant said that while Israel reserves the right to operate within the territory, his plan “does not provide for an Israeli civilian presence in Gaza after the war objectives have been achieved.” be”. “.
Some in Gaza are reluctant to consider leaving the area in the future.
“I know this is what the Israelis want, but I think about the future of my children and wonder where we could go. “In normal times I would never want to leave, but now there is nothing here: no schools, no roads, no house,” said a UN administrator who lives in an overcrowded emergency shelter near Khan Younis since his house was destroyed more than was destroyed two months ago.
Much of the northern Gaza Strip lies in ruins. About 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been displaced and are forced to live in increasingly smaller areas. According to the United Nations, a quarter of the population is now starving because not enough supplies are arriving.
On his trip, Blinken will visit Israel, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and five Arab countries: Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the State Department said.
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