Israel’s defense minister wants “total security control” over Gaza after the war, opening debate on the territory’s future. What will the implications be for Palestinians and the region?
While the guns are barely falling silent in the Gaza Strip after months of a deadly war, Israeli officials are already beginning to plan for the future of this Palestinian territory. The Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, declared on Tuesday that he wanted his country’s “total security control” over Gaza at the end of the current conflict. A position which raises many questions about the future governance of the Palestinian enclave.
A plea for Israeli security control
On his account A position that he presented as being personal. To illustrate his point, he compared the future governance of Gaza with that currently in place in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Divergences within the Israeli government
But this vision of total control over security in Gaza is not unanimous, including within the Israeli government. Mr. Katz’s predecessor at the Defense Ministry, Yoav Gallant, for example, was strongly opposed to any lasting Israeli control in the Gaza Strip after the war. Before being dismissed last May by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to differences over the conduct of the conflict, he even called on the latter to make commitments in this direction.
The shadow of past occupation
It should be remembered that the Israeli army has already occupied the Gaza Strip in the past, from 1967 to 2005, the date of its unilateral withdrawal. A withdrawal which then led to the evacuation, sometimes by force, of the Israeli settlers who had settled in this territory during these years of occupation. Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since taking power in 2007, categorically rejects any Israeli presence.
What future for Gaza and the Palestinians?
The current war, triggered on October 7, 2023 by an unprecedented Hamas attack, has left more than 1,200 dead on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, and more than 45,000 Palestinians have died in the military campaign of retaliation led by Israel, according to consistent sources. With declarations like those of Israel Katz, the whole question of the future of Gaza and its Palestinian inhabitants after this conflict of rare intensity is raised.
Gaza cannot be left under total Hamas control, but neither is an Israeli military occupation a viable solution. A balance must be found to ensure Israel’s security while providing prospects for the Palestinians.
– A Western diplomatic source in Jerusalem
But at this stage, no concrete plan seems to emerge, either from the Israeli side or from the international community, leaving the specter of a new tinderbox looming. The Gaza Strip and its more than 2 million Palestinian inhabitants thus remain suspended from the decisions that will be taken in the coming weeks and months. Decisions with serious consequences which will shape the future of this territory scarred by decades of conflict.
