Israel informed American officials that the return of the displaced from the northern Gaza Strip will be gradual and over a long period, and Israel will decide who will return and who will not. And repeated warnings of the "collapse of the Palestinian Authority" and a new intifada in the West Bank.

Yesterday, US President Joe Biden sent messages to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, through his statement that Israel “has begun to lose international support due to indiscriminate bombing,” and that Netanyahu must “strengthen and change” his government. Press reports today, Wednesday, were considered messages that carry within them the possibility of a “severe clash” between them.

Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported that Biden's statements came in the wake of statements made by Israeli officials to their American counterparts, including Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, during their visits to Tel Aviv. These American officials stated that the Israeli bombing in the Gaza Strip should spare civilians and increase humanitarian aid to the Strip.

The newspaper indicated that Biden raises two other topics that the Israelis talked about during their meeting with American officials. The first issue is the “vulnerable” situation of the Palestinian Authority, and the second is the fear that Israel will occupy an area in the Gaza Strip and not withdraw from it.

The Israelis informed the Americans that the Israeli army does not intend to withdraw from the northern Gaza Strip at the end of the military operation there, and that it will not allow all those displaced from the northern Gaza Strip to return to their area, and that this will be “a gradual process, and we will decide who will return to the north and who will not,” claiming “Ensuring that there are no saboteurs there,” and that in the next stage, Israeli forces will remain in the northern Gaza Strip as well as in the Gaza Valley, according to the newspaper.

The newspaper added that there is a relatively broad consensus at the Israeli political level about not implementing a rapid and complete withdrawal from the northern Gaza Strip, claiming that “we will not be able to provide security if we are not there, otherwise how will the residents of Nahal Oz (in the ‘Gaza envelope’) feel that they are safe to return to their homes?

Regarding the situation of the Palestinian Authority, the newspaper said that the Israeli Military Intelligence Division (“Aman”) provided and continues to repeat “a strategic warning about the collapse of the Authority.” Internal documents in the Israeli security apparatus “warned decision-makers that the deteriorating economic situation in the West Bank brings the fall of the Authority closer, or a new intifada against Israel, or both.” Since the beginning of the war on Gaza, approximately 280 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank.

The newspaper pointed out that Netanyahu did not exert his weight to pass a decision to return Palestinian workers from the West Bank to work in Israel, after the political-security cabinet refused to take a decision in this regard, despite Netanyahu’s knowledge of the warnings of the army and Shin Bet about the possibility of the situation in the West Bank erupting against the backdrop of the distress. Economic.

The Biden administration calls on Israel to combat settler terrorism and their continuing attacks on Palestinians and their property. According to the newspaper, “The Israeli police do not enforce the law in Judea and Samaria, which increases the tension there.”

The newspaper continued that Netanyahu’s categorical rejection of the Palestinian Authority’s return to power in Gaza, in contrast to Biden’s position, Netanyahu’s refusal to deal with the “day after” the war, and the statements of the extreme right in the government about settlement in the Gaza Strip, “all lead the Biden administration to a severe collision course with the Netanyahu government.” 

source: Arab48