There had already been several statements from him, hinting at his plan for the future of the Gaza Strip. But this Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented to his war cabinet for the first time a detailed plan on the future of the Palestinian enclave after the war.
In a document presented this Thursday evening to his government and unveiled this Friday, February 23 by the press, the head of government of the Hebrew State first recalls in the preamble the current objectives of the army in Gaza: the dismantling of Hamas and of Islamic Jihad, as well as the release of all hostages still held.
Once these objectives are achieved, according to Netanyahu’s plan, the Israeli army “will exercise security control over the entire area west of Jordan, including the Gaza Strip.” The objective put forward is to “prevent the strengthening of terrorist elements on the spot” and stem “threats against Israel”, underlines the document, which affirms that Israel will retain “its freedom of operational action throughout the Gaza Strip, without time limit. The Jewish state also intends to implement the “complete demilitarization of Gaza […] beyond what is necessary for the purposes of maintaining order”. As well as “de-radicalization in all religious, educational and social institutions in Gaza”.
The controversial implementation of a “buffer zone”
The plan also confirms that Israel will continue its already ongoing plan to establish a security buffer zone on the Palestinian side of the Gaza Strip border, adding that it will remain in place “as long as security l ‘will require’. A strategy denounced by the international community and in particular by the United States, although Israel’s primary supporter. “We remain clear on the fact of not encroaching” on the territory of Gaza, declared the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken in January, while the head of human rights of the UN Volker Türk had described this practice as a “crime of war”.
On the strategic border between Egypt and the south of the Gaza Strip, where Hamas had dug tunnels for more than a decade for arms smuggling, Israel will “maintain a closure” in “cooperation with Egypt and with the help of the United States” in order to avoid a rearmament of the Palestinian factions there, specifies the document.
A plan to “perpetuate the occupation”, denounces the Palestinian Authority
On the political side, like the project presented at the beginning of January by his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Netanyahu’s plan provides for the administration of the Gaza Strip to be entrusted to “local officials with administrative experience” and which are “not linked to countries or entities that support terrorism.” This obviously excludes from the equation any participation of the Islamists of Hamas, but also leaves doubt about the participation of the Palestinian Authority, rival of Hamas and which sits in the occupied West Bank.
The project does not mention the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, without explicitly excluding its participation in the management of Gaza. Above all, the plan does not provide for the creation of an independent State of Palestine, a perspective once again advocated by Washington, London and Paris.
“The plans proposed by Netanyahu aim to perpetuate the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state,” Nabil Abou Rudeinah, spokesperson for Mahmoud Abbas, immediately reacted this Friday. “Only a plan recognizing Gaza as an integral part of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital will be acceptable. Any project to the contrary is doomed to failure. Israel will not succeed in changing the geographic and demographic reality of the Gaza Strip,” he said in a statement.
The announcement of the plan comes as talks intensify for a multi-week truce in the clashes in Gaza and the release of some 130 hostages still in Hamas’s hands. An Israeli delegation led by the head of Mossad, the foreign intelligence services, arrived Friday in Paris, the recent scene of talks on this subject, in order to promote an agreement.
Unrwa in the crosshairs
Finally, the Netanyahu plan provides for the dismantling of the United Nations agency for the support of Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), several employees of which have been accused by Israel of having participated in the Hamas attack of October 7 on Israeli soil. . The UN has since fired the employees accused by Israel and launched an internal investigation into UNRWA, while several countries have suspended funding to the agency.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini stressed Thursday that the agency, the main source of aid to civilians in Gaza, has reached a “breaking point” with Israel’s repeated calls for its dismantling and the freezing of funding. of donors in the face of humanitarian needs. “I fear that we are on the brink of a monumental catastrophe with serious implications for peace, security and human rights in the region,” he added.