Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has presented his first official plan for Gaza after the war.
Here’s what’s inside.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and France’s Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne take their seats before their meeting in Jerusalem on February 5, 2024. (Photo by GIL COHEN-MAGEN / POOL / AFP)
Under the proposal, Israel will maintain security and military control over the Palestinian territories indefinitely after the war.
An Israeli army vevicle moves along the border with Gaza on February 1, 2024 in Southern Israel, Israel. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)
This includes both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which Israel already occupies, which would effectively prevent Palestinians from creating an independent state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses world leaders during the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on September 22, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The plan says that Gaza will be run by “local officials” with no affiliations to “countries or entities that support terrorism”.
And that the strip would also be “demilitarized” and “deradicalized”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (not pictured) speak to the media following talks at the Chancellery on March 16, 2023 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Netanyahu’s proposal will also dismantle the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA, which Israel recently accused of having ties to Hamas.
In eliminating the aid agency, Israel would also eliminate the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their land.
Palestinians receive bags of flour at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) distribution center in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on November 21, 2023. (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)
According to the plan, which Netanyahu presented to his security council on Thursday Feb. 22, Israel will only allow Gaza to be reconstructed after it has been demilitarized.
KARAMEH, GAZA – FEBRUARY 02: A view of destruction with destroyed buildings and roads after Israeli Forces withdrawn from the areas in Khan Yunis, Gaza on February 02, 2024. Extensive devastation unfolded as a result of weeks of continuous Israeli bombardment after Karameh withdrawn. The combination of bulldozer activity and air strikes resulted in the transformation of the region into a landscape of rubble and ash. The aftermath of the Israeli withdrawal from the city revealed the destruction that had befallen the area. (Photo by Abdulqader Sabbah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Netanyahu says Arab states would be responsible for funding the reconstruction.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has criticized the plan, saying it is “destined to fail”.
A Palestinian man sits near Israel’s controversial separation barrier dividing the Palestinian neighbourhood of Al-Tur in the Israeli annexed East Jerusalem with the West Bank, on February 11, 2016. (Photo credit should read THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images)
He said that peace and security in the region can only be achieved when Israel’s occupation of Palestine ends and an independent Palestinian state is created.
