JERUSALEM, Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday fended off criticism that he is not planning for a postwar reality in the Gaza Strip, saying it was impossible to prepare for any scenario in the embattled Palestinian enclave until Hamas is defeated.
Netanyahu has faced increasing
pressure from critics at home and allies abroad, especially the United States,
to present a plan for governance, security and rebuilding of Gaza.
He has indicated Israel seeks
to maintain open-ended control over security affairs and rejected a role for
the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. That position stands in
contrast to the vision set forth by the Biden administration, which wants
Palestinian governance in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a
precursor to Palestinian statehood.
The debate over a postwar
vision for Gaza comes as fighting has erupted again in places Israel had
targeted in the early days of the war and said it had under control, as well as
in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, which has sent hundreds of thousands fleeing.
For Palestinians, that
displacement has renewed painful memories of mass expulsion from what is now
Israel in the war surrounding the country's creation in 1948. Palestinians
across the Middle East on Wednesday were marking the 76th anniversary of that event.
The latest war began on
October 7 with Hamas’ rampage across southern Israel, through some of the same
areas where Palestinians fled from their villages decades earlier. Palestinian
militants killed some 1.200 people that day, mostly civilians, and took another
250 hostages.
Israel's fierce response has
obliterated entire neighborhoods in Gaza and forced some 80% of the population
to flee their homes. Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 35,000 Palestinians have
been killed, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants in its
count. The U.N. says there is widespread hunger and that northern Gaza is in
“full-blown famine.”
The renewed fighting in areas
where Israel's military had largely asserted control, as well as a recent
uptick in rocket fire from Gaza toward Israel, suggests that Hamas is
regrouping. That has prompted criticism in Israel that Netanyahu is squandering
military gains in Gaza by not moving toward a postwar vision for the territory.
Netanyahu said Israel has been
trying for months to find a solution to “this complex problem,” but that a
postwar plan could not be promoted so long as Hamas was not defeated. He said
Israel had tried to enlist local Palestinians to assist with food distribution
but that the effort failed because Hamas threatened them, a claim that could
not be verified.
“All the talk about ‘the day
after,' while Hamas stays intact, will remain mere words devoid of content,”
Netanyahu said.
Senior members of his Cabinet
disagree. In a nationally televised statement Wednesday, Netanyahu's defense
minister increased the criticism, saying he had repeatedly pleaded with the
Cabinet to make a decision on a postwar vision for Gaza that would see the
creation of a new Palestinian civilian leadership. Yoav Gallant, a member of
the three-man War Cabinet, said the government has refused to discuss the
issue.
Gallant said not doing so
would produce a reality where Israel could again exert civilian control over
the Gaza Strip, which he said he opposed. Israel withdrew troops and settlers
from the territory in 2005 after capturing it in the 1967 Mideast war.
“I call on Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to make a decision and declare that Israel will not
establish civilian control over the Gaza Strip, that Israel will not establish
military governance in the Gaza Strip and that a governing alternative to Hamas
in the Gaza Strip will be advanced immediately,” he said, suggesting
Netanyahu's decision-making was based on political considerations.
Hamas' top leader Ismail
Haniyeh said Wednesday in response to the debate over Gaza's postwar future
that “the Hamas movement is here to stay.”
Earlier this week, U.S.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken chided Israel for the lack of a plan in some
of his strongest public criticism.
Disagreements over Gaza’s
future have led to increasingly public friction between Israel and the U.S.,
its closest ally. The U.S. has also been outspoken against an Israeli incursion
into Rafah, which Israel sees as essential to defeating Hamas but where more
than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have sought shelter.
Israeli troops launched
operations in Rafah last week, seizing the nearby crossing into Egypt and
moving into eastern districts of the city in battles with Hamas fighters.
Though still short of the full-on invasion Israel has threatened, the incursion
has already caused chaos.
The United Nations said
Wednesday that over the last week, as Israeli forces have moved into parts of
Rafah, some 600,000 have fled the city. During that time, another 100,000 have
fled parts of northern Gaza that the Israeli military has reinvaded.
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