US secretary of state Antony Blinken has called on Israel to work with moderate Palestinians and neighbouring countries on plans for post-war Gaza, saying they are willing to help rebuild and govern the territory if there is a “pathway to a Palestinian state”.
The US and Israel are united in the war against Hamas but sharply divided over Gaza’s future, with Washington and its Arab allies hoping to revive the long-moribund peace process, an idea that Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners sharply oppose.
The war in Gaza is still raging and fuelling a humanitarian catastrophe in the tiny coastal enclave. The fighting has also stoked escalating violence between Israel and Lebanon’s Hizbullah militants which has raised fears of a wider conflict.
Speaking at a news conference after meeting senior Israeli leaders, Mr Blinken said Israel “must stop taking steps that undercut the Palestinians’ ability to govern themselves effectively”.
He added that Israel “must be a partner of the Palestinian leaders who are willing to lead their people” and live “side by side in peace with Israel”.
Settler violence, settlement expansion, home demolitions and evictions “all make it harder, not easier, for Israel to achieve lasting peace and security”.
US officials have called for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to take the reins in Gaza. Israeli leaders have rejected that idea but have not put forward a concrete plan beyond saying they will maintain open-ended military control over the territory.
Mr Blinken has said that Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey had agreed to begin planning for the reconstruction and governance of Gaza once the war ends. The leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority are set to meet on Wednesday in Jordan’s southern Red Sea city of Aqaba.
The US, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support for Israel’s offensive, has pressed it to shift to more precise operations targeting Hamas, but the pace of death and destruction has remained largely the same, with hundreds killed in recent days.
Israel has vowed to keep going until it destroys Hamas, which triggered the war with its October 7th attack into southern Israel. Palestinian militants killed 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and abducted around 250 others, nearly half of whom were released during a week-long cease-fire in November.
The Israeli military says it has dismantled Hamas infrastructure in northern Gaza — where entire neighbourhoods have been demolished — but is still battling small groups of militants. The offensive’s focus has shifted to the southern city of Khan Younis and built-up refugee camps in central Gaza.
Since the war began, Israel’s assault in Gaza has killed more than 23,200 Palestinians, roughly 1 per cent of the territory’s population, and more than 58,000 people have been wounded, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. About two-thirds of the dead are women and children.
Monday was one of the deadliest days yet for Israeli troops in Gaza, with nine killed, according to the military. Six died in an accidental blast when forces were preparing a controlled demolition of a weapons production site in central Gaza, the military said.
It says 185 soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive began in late October.
Nearly 85 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been driven from their homes by the fighting, and a quarter of its residents face starvation, with only a trickle of food, water, medicine and other supplies entering through an Israeli siege.
The UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA, warned that the fighting was severely hampering aid deliveries. Several warehouses, distribution centres, health facilities and shelters have been affected by the military’s evacuation orders, it said.
The situation is even more dire in northern Gaza, which Israeli forces cut off from the rest of the territory in late October. Tens of thousands of people who remain there face shortages of food and water.
The World Health Organisation has been unable to deliver supplies to the north for two weeks. OCHA said the military rejected five planned aid convoys to the north over that period, including deliveries of medical supplies and fuel for water and sanitation facilities.
