“No reoccupation”
USA rejects plans for “safe zone” in Gaza
February 24, 2024, 2:24 a.m
The USA and Israel do not agree on the question of how the situation in the Gaza Strip should be regulated after the war. Netanyahu is receiving criticism for his plan, according to which the Israeli army should have “unlimited freedom” to carry out operations in the Gaza Strip.
The US government has clearly rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s post-war plan for the Gaza Strip. For the future of the Palestinian territory, the USA had formulated the principles months ago that it should not be a “base for terrorism”, that there should be “no Israeli reoccupation” there and that its territory should “not be reduced”, said US -Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a visit to Argentina.
Blinken also said at a press conference in the capital Buenos Aires that he wanted to hold back from assessing Netanyahu’s plan because he had not seen it yet. But with his statements he contradicted the Israeli head of government’s plan to establish a “security zone” under the control of the Israeli military within the Gaza Strip. This zone is said to be on the border with Israel.
Netanyahu presented the plan to his security cabinet last evening. The document states that the buffer zone within the Gaza Strip should remain in place “as long as there is a need for security.” In addition, the Israeli army should have “unlimited freedom” to carry out operations in the Gaza Strip after the war in order to prevent the resurgence of violent extremist activities against Israel.
Plan would “perpetuate Israeli occupation”
The plan calls for the dissolution of the militant Palestinian organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the release of all hostages still held in the Gaza Strip. After the war, the area will be administered by “local officials” with no connection to “countries or entities that support terrorism.”
The Palestinian representative in the West Bank rejected the plan. This aims to “perpetuate the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state,” said a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The high-ranking Hamas representative Osama Hamdan also gave the Netanyahu plan no chance of being implemented. The Israeli head of government “presents ideas that he knows will never be successful,” said Hamdan in the Lebanese capital Beirut. Hamas is the government in the Gaza Strip, while the autonomous authority governs the West Bank.
Despite international pressure, there is no end in sight
There is still no sign of an end to the Gaza war, which has been going on for four and a half months. The war was triggered by the major attack on Israel on October 7th by Hamas, which the EU and the USA classify as a terrorist organization. Radical Islamist fighters committed atrocities, mostly against civilians. According to Israeli information, around 1,160 people were killed and around 250 hostages were taken to the Gaza Strip, of which 130 are said to still be in the Gaza Strip. Around 30 of them are now believed to be dead.
In response to the Hamas attack, Israel has since taken massive military action in the Gaza Strip, with the declared aim of destroying Hamas. According to recent information from Hamas, which cannot be independently verified, more than 29,500 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since then.