How Netanyahu’s post-war plan for Gaza clashes with international goals
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s framework released Friday for a post-war order in Gaza appeared to keep his government on a collision course with the United States and much of the rest of the world over the enclave’s future.
Here are some of the main points of friction between what the Israeli leader has proposed and what other governments have said they want after the war in Gaza is over:
Palestinian state
The Biden administration and Arab states have called on both Gaza and the occupied West Bank to become part of a future Palestinian state alongside Israel, arguing that decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be resolved with an eventual two-state solution.
But Mr Netanyahu’s plans appear to rule out a sovereign Palestinian state in the near term, saying Israel would retain military control indefinitely over “all territory west of the Jordan”, including the enclave. It does not explicitly rule out a Palestinian state, but its wording would make an independent territory including Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank virtually impossible in the near future.
Gaza’s border with Egypt
Netanyahu’s framework calls for closing Gaza’s border with Egypt — the only border crossing in the territory not controlled by Israel — to prevent what the country describes as cross-border smuggling. It would be done in coordination with Egypt and with the support of the United States, his proposal said.
But it was not clear whether the Biden administration would support such a move. And it would likely increase tensions with Egypt: the government in Cairo has called Israeli threats to send troops to a so-called buffer zone separating Gaza from the Egyptian-controlled Sinai desert “a serious threat to Egyptian-Israeli relations.” .
Buffer zone
The framework provides for a “security space” within Gaza along the border with Israel, to prevent another attack like the one on October 7, when Hamas-led attackers crossed the border and killed some 1,200 people in Israel, Israeli officials said. officials. . Israeli forces have been clean up the areademolishing dozens of homes and razing factories to the ground, sparking international condemnation.
A United Nations expert has said that the systematic demolition of Palestinian homes could be a war crime. The United States has rejected any permanent reduction in Gaza’s territory, although it has indicated it could support a temporary buffer zone, for example to allow displaced Israelis to return to border communities. Mr Netanyahu said the zone should remain in place “as long as the security need exists.”
The Palestinian Authority
The Biden administration has called for a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority – led by aging leader Mahmoud Abbas – to take control of Gaza after an Israeli withdrawal. The Palestinian body administers certain areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu’s proposal would instead provide a solution civilian administrative control in Gaza will be transferred to “local stakeholders with administrative experience” who are “not affiliated with countries or entities that support terrorism.” That likely rules out Abbas’s government in its current form, which Netanyahu has previously criticized in identical terms.