The Hebrew newspaper "Haaretz" estimated on Sunday that the discrepancy in the positions of Israel, the United States, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab countries regarding the future of governance in the Gaza Strip after the war would negatively affect the chances of reaching a final ceasefire.

In a report prepared by its commentator on Arab affairs, Zvi Barel, the newspaper pointed out that while the United States proposes to return the Palestinian Authority to manage the rule of the Gaza Strip after the war, Israel rejects any role for the Authority in the Gaza Strip.

The newspaper pointed out that what complicates matters is “the fact that there are disagreements within the Palestinian Authority regarding its future role in the Gaza Strip, in addition to the fact that the vision presented by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi regarding resolving the conflict (does not seem logical).”

According to Barel, Al-Sisi’s call to establish a demilitarized Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital, “cannot be achieved,” saying that his presentation of the plan indicates “the state of turmoil, frustration, and helplessness that Egypt suffers in dealing with the futureof the situation in the Gaza Strip after the war.

The newspaper pointed out that Sisi’s proposal to resolve the conflict does not answer many questions, including: “The identity of the party that will manage the situation in the Gaza Strip, and how can Hamas be disarmed? What are the borders of the Palestinian state? What are the agencies that will manage security in the Gaza Strip? What role will Hamas have in the future state? And what is the Palestinian authority that will assume governance there?

Regarding the Palestinian Authority, Barel explained that the representatives of the Authority presented different visions for the future role of the Authority in the Gaza Strip, as while Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that he was ready for the Authority to take over the administration of the Gaza Strip only within the framework of a political solution to the conflict, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina spoke about the Authority’s readiness to administer the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in accordance with what was stipulated in the Oslo Accords and international law, a position that Abu Rudeina later retracted in a television interview.

The report concluded that the discrepancy between the positions of the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, and the United States indicates the extent of the difficulties facing US President Joe Biden’s vision of the day after the war on the Gaza Strip, on the basis that Washington has no partner in its vision based on enabling the Authority to administer governance in the Strip.

On the other hand, the newspaper’s Arab affairs commentator pointed out that although the United States still supports Israel’s declaration of eliminating the Hamas movement as the goal of its war on the Gaza Strip, Washington has begun to doubt the reasonableness of achieving this goal, referring to what Biden issued at the conference. His last journalistic interview, in which he pointed out that eliminating Hamas represents a “difficult” challenge.

Bar'el considered that Biden's talk about the "difficulty" of eliminating the Hamas movement means that the United States has begun to doubt the realism of one of the main goals of the war on the Gaza Strip. He expected the Biden administration to work on developing a strategy to end the war, taking into account the future of the Gaza administration the next day.

The report quoted a diplomatic source as saying, “Biden has so far rejected a proposal put forward by the Arab countries to pass a resolution in the UN Security Council calling for a ceasefire, on the basis that passing the resolution negatively affects the chances of releasing Israeli prisoners held by the Hamas movement.” On the other hand, as Barel points out, “Biden believes that it is possible to begin discussing ways to return the Palestinian Authority to the Gaza Strip in light of the continuing war.”

Bar'el concluded his report by saying, "Biden's vision faces two fundamental challenges: Israel's insistence on eliminating the Hamas movement, and its refusal to return power to the Gaza Strip."

In a related context, the Israeli journalist specializing in Palestinian affairs, Shlomo Eldar, commented, criticizing the decision-making circles in Israel and the West, for being busy “talking about the day after Hamas’s rule in the Gaza Strip after the current war launched by Israeli army against it.”

In an analysis published by the newspaper "Haaretz", Eldar stressed that "Hamas will continue to maintain its presence in the Gaza Strip even after the end of the current war."

Source: Alaraby Aljadeed