The New York Times said that senior officials in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were studying behind the scenes an expanded plan for the Gaza Strip after the war, through which Israel would offer to share supervision of the Strip with Arab countries in addition to the United States.

The newspaper explained - in its report - that for several months, Netanyahu avoided holding any detailed discussion about the future of Gaza after the war, in an attempt to appease his far-right allies who seek to rebuild settlements in the Strip, and his foreign partners who want Gaza to return to Palestinian rule.

The report confirmed - based on 3 Israeli officials and 5 people who discussed the plan with members of the Israeli government - that Israel will implement this plan in exchange for normalizing relations with Arab countries.

Arab officials and analysts described the power-sharing plan as unimplementable, because it does not create a clear path towards establishing a Palestinian state, according to the newspaper.

Post-war

Under this proposal - the newspaper continues - the supposed Arab-Israeli alliance, in cooperation with the United States, will appoint leaders in Gaza to rebuild it, reform its educational system, and maintain public order.

During a period extending between 7 and 10 years, the coalition will allow the residents of Gaza to vote on the option of absorbing them into a unified Palestinian administration that governs the Strip and the occupied West Bank.

The American newspaper noted that the plan clarifies that the Israeli army “can continue to operate inside Gaza” during that period, without specifying that the unified Palestinian administration is a sovereign state, and without referring to the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu had publicly rejected the idea of complete Palestinian sovereignty and ruled out the participation of the Ramallah Authority in managing the Gaza Strip.

The New York Times quoted Thomas R. Nides, a former US ambassador to Israel who was consulted on the plan, as saying, “The proposal is important and shows that Israeli officials are seriously thinking behind the scenes about what Gaza will look like after the war, but the devil is in the details.”

Businessmen - who requested that their names not be revealed so as not to jeopardize their ability to promote the idea - explained that they briefed officials from several Arab and Western governments on the plan proposed by a group of businessmen, most of them Israeli, and presented it to Israeli officials in Netanyahu’s office last December. .

Source: New York Times + Aljazeera