Netanyahu denies of lack of post-war plan
Source: ArkansasOnline
JERUSALEM -- 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.
SIGNS HAMAS REGROUPING
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 while 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.
"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.
DISPLACED PALESTINIANS
The Nakba, Arabic for "catastrophe," refers to the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what today is Israel before and during the 1948 war surrounding its creation, in which five Arab countries attacked the nascent state.
More than twice that number have been displaced within Gaza in the latest war.
The refugees and their descendants number some 6 million and live in built-up refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In Gaza, they are the majority of the population, with most families having been pushed out of what is now central and southern Israel.
At a center for older residents of the Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Amina Taher recalled the day her family's house in the village of Deir al-Qassi, in today's northern Israel, collapsed over their heads after being shelled by Israeli forces in 1948. The house was next to a school that Palestinian fighters used as a base, she said.
Taher, then 3, was pulled from the rubble unharmed, but her 1-year-old sister was killed. Now she has seen the same scenes play out in news coverage of Gaza.
"When I would watch the news, I had a mental breakdown because then I remembered when the house fell on me," she said. "What harm did these children do to get killed like this?"
Information for this article was contributed by Samy Magdy and Edith Lederer of The Associated Press.
Activists carry a large Palestinian flag during a mass ceremony to commemorate the Nakba Day, Arabic for catastrophe, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Palestinians are marking 76 years of dispossession on Wednesday, commemorating their mass expulsion from what is today Israel, as a potentially even larger catastrophe unfolds in Gaza, where more than half a million of people have been displaced in recent days by fighting. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Palestinians carry bloodstained mock children bodies during a mass ceremony to commemorate the Nakba Day, Arabic for catastrophe, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Palestinians are marking 76 years of dispossession on Wednesday, commemorating their mass expulsion from what is today Israel, as a potentially even larger catastrophe unfolds in Gaza, where more than half a million of people have been displaced in recent days by fighting. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Palestinian Fayrouz Safi cries while she takes the last look at the body of her son Aysar Safi, 20, at the family house during his funeral in the West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, north of Ramallah Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Safi was killed during clashes with Israeli forces at the northern entrance of al-Bireh city, Palestinian ministry of health said. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Maps of historic Palestine with Arabic writing that reads "The map of Palestine, Have your children memorizing it", in a center of the Social Support NGO at the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. The Nakba, Arabic for "catastrophe," refers to the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were driven out of what today is Israel before and during the war surrounding its creation in 1948. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Palestinian Fayrouz Safi cries while she takes the last look at the body of her son Aysar Safi, 20, at the family house during his funeral in the West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, north of Ramallah Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Safi was killed during clashes with Israeli forces at the northern entrance of al-Bireh city, Palestinian ministry of health said. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)