The Palestinian Authority has sharply criticized a “morning after” plan for Gaza put forward by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling it “doomed to fail.”
“If the world wants security and stability in the region, it must end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and recognize the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. on Friday by the Palestinian state news agency Wafa.
Netanyahu's plan is his first official proposal for what comes after the war in Gaza, in which Israel has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians.
According to the document, presented to members of Israel's security cabinet on Thursday, Israel would maintain military and security control over all lands west of Jordan, including the occupied West Bank and Gaza, territories where the Palestinians want to create their independent state. .
In the long-term goals listed, Netanayhu also rejected “unilateral recognition” of a Palestinian state. He said an agreement with the Palestinians would only be achieved through direct negotiations between the two sides, but did not mention who would be the Palestinian side.
In response, Abu Rudeineh rejected any attempt to separate the government in Gaza from that of the West Bank.
“Gaza will only be part of the independent Palestinian state… Any plan to the contrary is doomed to failure,” he said. “Israel will not succeed in its attempts to alter the geographic and demographic reality in the Gaza Strip.”
“The plans proposed by Netanyahu aim to perpetuate the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Abu Rudeineh added.
Gaza will be governed by “local officials”
The war in Gaza has revived international calls – including from Israel's main backer, the United States – for a so-called two-state solution as the ultimate goal to resolve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, many senior Israeli politicians oppose the creation of a Palestinian state.
While in Gaza, Netanyahu's plan emphasized that the war would continue until Israel had achieved all of its announced objectives: the dismantlement of military capabilities and infrastructure operated by Hamas and Islamic Jihad; the return of all captives taken on October 7; and the elimination of all security threats from Gaza.
The enclave will then be run by “local officials” who are not linked to “countries or entities that support terrorism.”
Commenting on the plan, Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said the identity of these officials was unknown.
“We don't know who they are, he [Netanyahu] He doesn't know either… I don't think they exist. There were attempts in the 1970s and 1980s to create these types of entities among the Palestinians and they failed within a short time,” he said.
It is also unclear whether representatives of the Palestinian Authority (PA) will participate in the control of Gaza.
Al Jazeera's Hamdah Salhut, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, noted that in his draft plan, Netanyahu did not mention the role of the Palestinian Authority.
“He [Netanyahu] “He didn't say this officially in his plan, but he used broader terminology, probably to reach a consensus among his right-wing government,” he said.
“Remember that the Israeli prime minister is under immense pressure from Americans who want to see a revitalized Palestinian Authority take power once the war is over. But Netanyahu has been quite defiant in coming in and taking control of Gaza,” Salhut added.
The Israeli prime minister's plan also outlined demilitarization and deradicalization as medium-term objectives to be achieved in Gaza. He does not detail when that intermediate stage would begin or how long it would last, but says that “the Israeli army will indefinitely maintain the freedom to intervene in Gaza to prevent the resurgence of terrorist activity.”
It also proposes that Israel have a presence on the Gaza-Egypt border in the south of the enclave and says Israel should cooperate with Egypt and the United States in that area to prevent smuggling attempts, including at the Rafah crossing.
Plans for the closure of UNRWA
Finally, Netanyahu's plan also says that the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, would be closed.
Israel has long sought to eliminate the UN agency, which enshrines the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. Israel has recently claimed that UNRWA has ties to Hamas, a claim the agency has strongly denied and US intelligence assessments have reportedly called into question.
Tamara Alrifai, director of external relations and communications at UNRWA, told Al Jazeera that attempts to ditch UNRWA must be seen alongside efforts to eliminate the future prospect of a Palestinian state, highlighting Netanyahu's display of a map of Israel that included the occupied West Bank. Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem during a speech to the UN General Assembly in September.
“A map that includes and covers all the Palestinian territories where UNRWA works. “I don’t think this is a coincidence,” she stated.
According to Al Jazeera's Bishara, this plan is not official and is one that Netanyahu is raising with the cabinet to leak to the media and do a number of other things.
“First of all, there is that approach towards your own base. He's telling his radicals in government and the public that he's standing firm… Secondly, I think it's pretty stupid to be honest, because we know the Israelis have tried this. [plan to take control of Gaza in some form or the other] before and it never worked,” Bishara said.
“Finally, [the plan] It's so sadistic. We are in the middle of the fifth month of genocide against the Palestinian people. Still, the Israeli prime minister insists they will maintain control… that kind of sadism is unprecedented.”
