Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a “day after” plan for Gaza, his first official proposal to end the war in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.
According to the document, presented to members of Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday and seen by Reuters on Friday, Israel will retain security control over all land west of the Jordan River, including the occupied West Bank and Gaza, territories where the Palestinians want to create an independent state.
In the stated long-term goals, Netanyahu rejects “unilateral recognition” of a Palestinian state. He says that a solution with the Palestinians will only be achieved through direct negotiations between the two sides, but he did not specify who would represent the Palestinian side.
In Gaza, Netanyahu highlights demilitarization and deradicalization as goals to be achieved in the medium term. It does not specify when that phase will begin or how long it will last. However, he conditions the recovery of the Gaza Strip, a large part of which was destroyed by the Israeli offensive, with its complete demilitarization.
Netanyahu proposes that Israel maintain a presence on the Gaza-Egypt border in the south of the enclave, and cooperate with Egypt and the United States in that area to prevent smuggling attempts, including at the Rafah crossing.
In order to replace Hamas’ rule in Gaza while maintaining public order, Netanyahu suggests working with local representatives “who are not affiliated with, or financially supported by, terrorist countries or groups.”
It calls for the closure of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, and its transfer to other international aid groups.
“The Prime Minister’s document on principles reflects a broad public consensus on the goals of the war and the replacement of Hamas rule in Gaza with a civilian alternative,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
The document was circulated to members of the security cabinet to begin discussion on the matter.
The war was triggered by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages, according to Israeli reports.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel responded with an air and ground attack on blockaded Gaza that killed more than 29,400 people, according to Palestinian health officials. The offensive displaced most of the territory’s population and caused widespread famine and disease.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, told Reuters that Netanyahu’s proposal was doomed, as were all Israeli plans to change the geographic and demographic reality of Gaza.
“If the world is truly interested in security and stability in the region, it must end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and recognize an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” he said.
The war in Gaza has revived international calls, including Israel’s main ally, the United States, for a so-called two-state solution as the ultimate goal to end the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A number of senior Israeli politicians, however, oppose this.
The two-state solution has long been a key Western policy in the region, but little progress has been made toward Palestinian statehood since the signing of the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s, Reuters reports.
