Palestinian leaders reject Netanyahu’s postwar plan
Outline gives Israel open-ended control, sets up buffer zone
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — A long-awaited postwar plan by Israel’s prime minister shows that his government seeks openended control over security and civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip. That was swiftly rejected Friday by Palestinian leaders and runs counter to Washington’s vision for the war-ravaged enclave.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the two-page document to his security Cabinet late Thursday for approval.
Deep disagreements over Gaza’s future have led to increasingly public friction between Israel and the United States, its closest ally. The Biden administration seeks eventual Palestinian governance in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a precursor to Palestinian statehood, an outcome vehemently opposed by Netanyahu and his right-wing government. Netanyahu’s plan envisions hand-picked Palestinians in Gaza administering the territory.
Separately, cease-fire efforts appeared to gain traction, with mediators to present a new proposal at an expected high-level meeting this weekend in Paris. The U.S., Egypt and Qatar have been struggling for weeks to find a formula that could halt Israel’s devastating offensive in Gaza, but they now face an unofficial deadline as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approaches.
In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes in the center and south of the territory killed at least 92 Palestinians overnight and into Friday, health officials and an Associated Press journalist said.
“The world does not feel what we are enduring,” said Fidaa Ashour, whose sister was killed in a strike early Friday in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. At a hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah, relatives wept over bodies laid out in burial shrouds in the courtyard, and a man cradled a dead infant.
The overall Palestinian death toll since the start of the war rose to more than 29,500, Gaza health officials said. The death toll amounts to close to 1.3% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
Netanyahu’s plan, while lacking specifics, marks the first time he has presented a formal postwar vision. It reiterates that Israel is determined to crush Hamas, the militant group that took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.
Polls have indicated that a majority of Palestinians don’t support Hamas, but the group has deep roots in Palestinian society. Critics, including some in Israel, say the goal of eliminating Hamas is unattainable.
Netanyahu’s plan calls for freedom of action for Israel’s military across a demilitarized Gaza after the war to thwart any security threat. It says Israel would establish a buffer zone inside Gaza, which is likely to provoke U.S. objections.
The plan also envisions Gaza being governed by local officials who would “not be identified with countries or entities that support terrorism and will not receive payment from them.”
It’s not clear whether any Palestinians would agree to such subcontractor roles. Over the past decades, Israel has repeatedly tried and failed to set up handpicked local Palestinian governing bodies.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers pockets of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, denounced Netanyahu’s plan Friday as “colonialist and racist,” saying it would amount to Israeli reoccupation of Gaza. Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but maintained control of access to the territory.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had not seen details of the plan. But he said any plan should be consistent with basic principles the U.S. had set out for Gaza’s future, “including that it cannot be a platform for terrorism, there should be no Israeli reoccupation of Gaza, the size of Gaza’s territory should not be reduced.”
The Biden administration wants to see a reformed Palestinian Authority govern Gaza and the West Bank as a step toward Palestinian statehood. It has sought to chip away at Netanyahu’s resistance by holding out the prospect of the normalization of ties between Israel and Arab powerhouse Saudi Arabia, which demands a Palestinian state as a precondition.
Hamas has demanded a complete halt to Israel’s offensive and a withdrawal of its troops from Gaza in return for the release of all its remaining hostages, as well as the release of Palestinians held by Israel, including top militants. Netanyahu has rejected those demands.
In the West Bank, two Palestinians killed in an Israeli drone strike late Thursday were buried Friday in the Jenin refugee camp. Their bodies were wrapped in flags of the militant group Islamic Jihad during the funeral procession.
Israel says one of those killed had been involved in shooting attacks on Israeli settlements and army posts, and was about to carry out another attack when he was killed.