US, Israel Discuss Three Possible Options for Gaza Strip’s Future Once War with Hamas Ends – News18

The US and Israel are already exploring options for the future of the Gaza Strip once the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas ends, news outlet Bloomberg said. There are three scenarios that the US and Israel are exploring if the latter becomes successful in ousting Hamas.

The report said that the conversations between American and Israeli officials have been propelled by a sense of urgency because Israel has begun its ground invasion. However, they indicated that the conversations are at an early stage and a lot of these plans could ultimately change.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken’s replies to the Senate Appropriations Committee gave an indication that American and Israeli governments are mulling a plan for Gaza. “We can’t have a reversion to the status quo with Hamas running Gaza. We also can’t have — and the Israelis start with this proposition themselves — Israel running or controlling Gaza. Between those shoals are a variety of possible permutations that we’re looking at very closely now, as are other countries,” Blinken said, according to the report by Bloomberg.

Israel, for its part, said that it does not want to rule Gaza but made it clear that Hamas cannot rule Gaza.

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson told the news outlet that the US is not mulling sending or discussing if to send its troops to Gaza as part of a peacekeeping force.

It should also be noted that the Palestinian Authority is also not keen to form a government in Gaza and also remains widely unpopular in the coastal enclave.

What Are the Options

Option 1 would be to grant temporary administrative oversight to Gaza to countries from the region, backed by troops from the US, UK, Germany and France. This would include administrators from Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, the Bloomberg report said.

The second option would be to install a peacekeeping force in the coastal enclave similar to the Multinational Force and Observers group that operates on and around the Sinai peninsula. The Multinational Force and Observers group enforce the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. The Bloomberg report Israeli authorities are considering this proposal.

Option 3 is to have a temporary governance of the Gaza Strip under a United Nations umbrella. Israel views this as an impractical option given after it called for the resignation of UN chief Antonio Guterres after the latter claimed that the attacks did not happen in a ‘vacuum’. The third option would have “advantage of the legitimacy bestowed by the UN”, the report said.

Another option that came from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy proposed a Palestinian-run interim administration, with the UN Relief and Works Agency continuing to provide food, health and education.

Hurdles

Firstly, the question of the formation of a Palestinian State remains. US President Joe Biden and other US officials feel that it is necessary but no one understands how to achieve that outcome and neither does it come up during discussions. Israel has said that its military operation in Gaza will run for months and could lead to setting up of buffer zones.

Another main hurdle would be to get Arab and West Asian stakeholders to agree and participate in these measures.

The Biden administration is not even close to making a decision on whether to put American forces in Gaza and believes it could be a risky decision.