Netanyahu proposes transitional Israeli post-war control of Gaza

“PI believe that Israel will, for an indefinite period of time, have general responsibility for security, because we have already seen what happens when we don’t have it”, said Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with the North American television station ABC, in response to a question that has resounded since Israel launched its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip ten days ago.

“When we don’t have this security responsibility, what we have is an eruption of terror from Hamas on a scale we couldn’t imagine,” he added, referring to the Islamist group’s attack on Israeli soil on October 7, which killed 1,400 people. dead – mostly civilians – and 240 hostages, which triggered the start of the current conflict.

According to Hamas, intense Israeli bombing and an aggressive ground offensive have already killed more than 10,320 people, including 4,237 children, in the Gaza Strip, which is plunged into the worst humanitarian catastrophe in its history, with little food, drinking water, medicine or fuel. The humanitarian aid that is arriving is insufficient.

The Israeli Prime Minister, who has not yet accepted any responsibility for the failures of the intelligence services that allowed more than 3,000 Hamas men to enter Israel for an unprecedented aggression, has not specified who should take control of the de facto-governed Gaza Strip. by Hamas since 2007, after the war.

“Those who do not want to follow the path of Hamas”, replied Netanyahu vaguely, whose statements contrast with the messages of other Israeli officials, who insisted throughout October that the country has no intention of reoccupying the enclave, where 2.3 million Palestinians and from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005.

The US administration of Joe Biden has expressed opposition to an Israeli re-occupation of the Gaza Strip and called on Israel to present a plan for who will govern after Hamas is removed from power, as more and more eyes turn to the unpopular Palestinian National Authority (PNA), which governs small parts of the West Bank occupied by Israel since 1967.

On Sunday, on his third visit to the region since the start of the war, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unexpected visit to Ramallah – the administrative capital of the PNA – where he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who It is far from being consensual among Palestinians.

During the conversation with Blinken, Abbas called for an “immediate” end to the “destructive war” between Israel and Hamas and said he was willing to “take responsibility” for Gaza as part of a “global political solution.”

Regarding the political future of the Gaza Strip in the post-war period, Itamar Yaar, a retired colonel in the Israeli army, stated today that, as soon as Israel puts an end to the Hamas regime, “the only option is for an international force to take transitional control” , preferably from the Arab countries of the region.

“We should not be the ones to take on this responsibility,” said the security expert with extensive military experience in Gaza.

According to Yaar, the “most realistic” alternative is for the ANP to take political control of the post-Hamas Gaza Strip from the international transition force, although he admits that this is an approach that will not be widely supported by Israeli society, which is each increasingly right-wing and in favor of the annexation of Palestinian territories.

Until this future scenario is reached, which could be months away, Netanyahu continues to exclude the possibility of a ceasefire that would allow humanitarian aid and rest for the civilian population, forced to flee south under the bombs, despite of repeated appeals from the United States and the rest of the international community.

The Israeli leader ignored Blinken’s calls for a temporary ceasefire at the weekend meeting and did so again on Monday in a phone call with Biden, making, Sara Armas assures, the immediate release of all hostages a precondition , showing himself to be only open to “short humanitarian breaks”.

“In practice, short breaks – an hour here or there – depending on the circumstances, to allow humanitarian goods to enter or our hostages to leave,” Netanyahu maintained in the interview with ABC.

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