Netanyahu Issues First Plan for Postwar Gaza
The proposal, which calls for indefinite Israeli
military control and buffer zones in the territory, rankled Arab nations and
was rejected by Palestinians.
Patrick
Kingsley Thomas Fuller
By Patrick
Kingsley and Thomas Fuller
Feb. 23,
2024
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel released on Friday his most detailed
proposal yet for a postwar Gaza, pledging to retain indefinite military control
over the enclave, while ceding the administration of civilian life to Gazans
without links to Hamas.
The plan,
if realized, would make it almost impossible to establish a Palestinian state
including Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, at least in the short term.
That would likely accelerate a clash between Israel and a growing number of its
foreign partners, including the United States, that are pushing for Palestinian
sovereignty after the war ends.
The
blueprint for Gaza comes after nearly 20 weeks of war in the territory and a
death toll approaching 30,000 people, at
least half of them women and children, according to Gazan authorities.
Mr.
Netanyahu’s proposal for postwar Gaza was circulated to cabinet ministers and
journalists early on Friday. He has laid out most of the terms of the proposal
in previous public statements, but this was the first time they had been
collected in a single document.
The
proposal also calls for the dismantling of UNRWA, the U.N. agency charged with
delivering the bulk of the life-sustaining aid to the besieged territory. And
it calls for an overhaul of the Gazan education and welfare systems, as well as
buffer zones along Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt.
The plan
was circulated on the same day that American, Israeli, Qatari and Egyptian
officials began negotiations in Paris over the release of hostages and a
possible cease-fire.
It also
came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was “disappointed” by an
Israeli announcement that it planned to build 3,000 new housing units in
settlements in the occupied West Bank as retribution for the killing of an
Israeli settler this week. He called the settlements “inconsistent with
international law.”
Mr.
Blinken’s comments, as well as the contents of Friday’s postwar blueprint, put
into sharper focus the widening gap in expectations and policy between Mr.
Netanyahu and the Biden administration on the occupied West Bank and the future
of postwar Gaza.
Palestinians
immediately condemned Mr. Netanyahu’s plan, with Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a
spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority’s leader, saying that it
aimed “to perpetuate Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and prevent
the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
Inside
Israel, the postwar plan received a muted response. Many of the central
proposals broadly align with majority opinion in Israel, including making it
difficult to create a Palestinian state in the short term, a position that
polling suggests has broad domestic support.
Analysts
described parts of the plan as carefully written to postpone long-term
decisions about Gaza’s fate and to avoid irreversible confrontations with both
domestic allies and foreign partners.
The proposal signaled to Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing base that he is
defying foreign pressure on Israel to leave Gaza and to allow a Palestinian
state in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. But the vagueness of its
wording also signaled to the United States and other foreign powers pressing
for Palestinian sovereignty that there is still room to maneuver.
“It leaves
a lot of options open and postpones a lot of decisions,” said Nadav Strauchler,
a former strategist for Mr. Netanyahu.
“He is
treading a thin line,” Mr. Strauchler said, of the prime minister. “Think how
many different eyes and audiences are reading this paper with different
glasses.”
Yet on some
points, Mr. Netanyahu’s blueprint seems certain to rankle, if not anger,
Israel’s neighbors and allies.
It
envisions the creation of an Israeli-controlled buffer zone along the length of
Gaza’s border with Egypt, a move that risks inflaming tensions with the
Egyptian government. That aspect of the plan would require Israel to invade
Rafah, the southernmost city of Gaza, where most Gazans are currently
sheltering, risking their mass displacement onto Egyptian territory, an outcome
that Egypt has repeatedly warned against.
The plan
also says that Israel will seek to retain control over a sliver of land inside
Gaza, along the Israeli border, where its military is systematically
demolishing thousands of buildings in order to create another buffer zone.
Israel’s intention is to make it harder for militants in Gaza to repeat a raid
like that of Oct. 7, although the United States and others have spoken out
against any effort to reduce the size of Gaza.
The plan
does not explicitly address one of the most disputed topics outside of Israel:
whether Israeli settlers would be allowed to reestablish communities on Gazan
soil, as Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing supporters are pushing for.
A senior
government official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a matter
that puts the prime minister at odds with his base, said that there were no
plans to resettle Gaza with Jews, but declined to say so on the record, leaving
Mr. Netanyahu with room to maneuver in the future.
Mr.
Netanyahu’s document would need to be adopted by his government, though there
is no timeline yet for such discussions.
The plan
lays out a broad vision for the governance of Gaza after the war.
Administrative
control over the territory would be handed to “local stakeholders with
managerial experience” who are “not affiliated with countries or entities that
support terrorism.” The reference to terrorism aims to exclude anyone that
Israel says has connections to Hamas.
This part
of the plan, too, conflicted with the proposal laid out by Biden administration
officials, who have said repeatedly that a revamped Palestinian Authority, the
body that administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, should play a
role in postwar Gaza.
The Israeli
blueprint does not explicitly mention the Palestinian Authority, but the
reference to local residents implicitly rules out the involvement of the
authority’s leadership in a postwar Gaza, analysts said
The
document even leaves open the possibility of “a permanent arrangement with the
Palestinians,” but it says that “will only be achieved through direct
negotiation between the parties” — an implicit rejection of hints by countries,
including Britain and France, that they could unilaterally recognize a
Palestinian state.
Mr.
Netanyahu has previously rejected the concept of an independent Palestinian
state, but his plan released on Friday did not explicitly rule it out.
Yet, even
as Mr. Netanyahu’s blueprint spurred debate over the future of Gaza, aid groups
and the United Nations were warning with growing urgency about the here and
now: the lack of food, drinking water and medicine in Gaza.
“I fear we
are on the edge of a monumental disaster with grave implications for regional
peace, security, and human rights,” Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner
general, wrote in a letter to the president of the U.N. General Assembly on
Thursday.
Fewer aid
trucks have entered Gaza this week than earlier in the year, when between 100
and 200 trucks were arriving on most days; both border crossings used for aid
have frequently closed, sometimes because Israeli protesters pressing for the
release of hostages have blocked a crossing. A total of 69 trucks entered on
Tuesday and Wednesday, the agency said, adding that it is aiming for 500 per
day to meet Gaza’s needs.
Long
skeptical of UNRWA, Israel has charged that 30 of the agency’s employees
participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people and saw
hundreds of hostages hauled to Gaza, where at least 100 still remain.
The United
Nations says it has fired employees who were suspected of involvement in the
attacks and has disciplined and even terminated staff members for taking part
in inappropriate political activities. But Mr. Lazzarini also pleaded with
countries that suspended funding after Israel made the allegations, saying it
would be “immensely irresponsible” to punish an entire community “because of
allegations of criminal acts against some individuals.”
Trucks
waiting to enter Gaza from Egypt at the Kerem Shalom Crossing in Israel. Fewer
aid trucks have entered Gaza this week than earlier in the year.Credit...Susana
Vera/Reuters
Reporting
was contributed by Vivian Yee, Aaron Boxerman, Johnatan Reiss, Rawan Sheikh
Ahmad and Edward Wong.
Patrick
Kingsley is the Jerusalem bureau chief, covering Israel and the occupied
territories. He has reported from more than 40 countries, written two books and
previously covered migration and the Middle East for The Guardian. More about
Patrick Kingsley
Thomas
Fuller, a Page One Correspondent for The Times, writes and rewrites stories for
the front page. More about Thomas Fuller
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