A Palestinian boy sits amidst the ruins at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip February 23, 2024. (Credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)
BEIRUT — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the Israeli security cabinet with a “document of principles,” Thursday night, regarding the administration of Gaza after the war, which aims at installing “local officials to administer services in the strip instead of Hamas,” multiple Israeli media outlets reported Friday. The Palestinian presidency has rejected this plan and said it continues Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state, Wafa, the Palestinian state-run news agency reported.
The “document of principles" Netanyahu presented to security cabinet ministers at Thursday night’s meeting does not specifically name the Palestinian Authority, the internationally recognized governing Palestinian body based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, or rule out its participation in the post-war governance of Gaza. Instead, it says that civil affairs in Gaza will be run by “local officials” who have “administrative experience” and who are not tied to “countries or entities that support terrorism,” without providing specific information, Reuters reported.
Gaza will only be part of the independent Palestinian state: Palestinian presidency
In reaction to this plan, Nabil Abu Rudeina, the official spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in quotes relayed by Wafa and Haaretz, said that “Gaza will only be part of the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and any plans other than that are doomed to failure, and Israel will not succeed in its attempts to change the geographical reality.”
Abu Rudeina added that if “the world wants there to be security and stability in the region,” it must end the occupation and recognize an independent Palestinian state.
“Netanyahu has sufficed with saying that he will not allow the Palestinian Authority to return to govern Gaza. He has sometimes qualified this assertion by saying that Israel won’t allow the PA in its current form to return to the Palestinian enclave, indicating that Israel could live with a reformed PA of the kind that the Biden administration has been pushing,” the Times of Israel reported.
A statement from Netanyahu’s office said the document is based on principles broadly accepted by the public and that it will serve as the basis for future discussions regarding the post-war management of Gaza, according to AFP.
The plan begins by stipulating a principle for the immediate term: The [Israeli army] will continue the war until achieving its goals, which are the destruction of the military capabilities and governmental infrastructure of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the return of the hostages abducted on Oct. 7, and the removal of any security threat from Gaza Strip long-term.
"The [Israeli army] will maintain an indefinite freedom to operate throughout the entire strip to prevent the resurgence of terror activity, the document says, describing this as an intermediate-term principle,” the document presented by Netanyahu explains.
The plan states that Israel will move forward with its already-in-motion project to establish a security buffer zone on the Palestinian side of the strip’s border, adding that it will remain in place “as long as there is a security need for it.”
The closure will be upheld with assistance from the US and in cooperation with Egypt “as much as possible.”
A key element of the plan also involves the dismantling of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, the report said.
Israel has alleged that several employees of UNRWA took part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
'Gaza rehabilitation plan will be financed and led by countries acceptable to Israel'
Cairo has pushed back against Israeli calls to take over control over the Philadelphi corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border but privately has indicated more flexibility, US and Arab diplomats have allegedly told the Times of Israel. The document added that the “southern closure will be made up of measures aimed at preventing smuggling from Egypt — both underground and above ground, including at the Rafah crossing.”
Also in the intermediate stage, Israel will maintain security control “over the entire area west of Jordan,” from the land, air and sea “to prevent the strengthening of terrorist elements in the [West Bank] and the Gaza Strip and to thwart threats from them towards Israel,” the document states.
Netanyahu’s plan envisions Gaza’s “complete demilitarization … beyond what is required for the needs of maintaining public order.”
In addition to the “local officials” whom Netanyahu envisions being responsible for public order and for providing civil services, the document adds that Israel will also promote a “de-radicalization plan … in all religious, educational and welfare institutions in Gaza.”
This too will be advanced “as much as possible with the involvement and assistance of Arab countries that have experience in promoting de-radicalization.”
“The rehabilitation plan will be financed and led by countries acceptable to Israel,” the document states, without naming any specific countries.
Netanyahu’s plan concludes by reiterating “a pair of principles adopted earlier this week by both the cabinet and the Knesset: That Israel outright rejects any international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians, which should only be reached through direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions; and that Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, which it views as a ‘reward for terror,’” the Times of Israel concluded.