by Yonah Jeremy Bob
Katz: IDF would withdraw from much of the 75% of Gaza under its control• Continuing war into remaining 25% would unnecessarily endanger the Israeli hostages
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Defense Minister Israel Katz is optimistic that there will be, at minimum, a 60-day ceasefire in the not-so-distant future and talked in more detail than ever before about what Israel's plans for post-war Gaza might look like, even as he still preserved ambiguity on some major points.
Regarding the upcoming ceasefire, he said that it is already basically agreed that Hamas will return 10 living hostages and about half of the deceased hostages, bringing the number of hostages held by Hamas down from around 50 to around 25 (originally, there were around 250.)
Katz also said it is basically agreed that the IDF will withdraw from much of the 75% of Gazan territory which it took control over since March, and even more since May, while holding onto a security perimeter as large as or larger than what it held after the January ceasefire.
The remaining disagreements to be worked out currently or during the 60-day ceasefire period relate to: 1) the terms for ending the war, especially regarding the position of Hamas; 2) various humanitarian issues, such as whether the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in southern Gaza will continue to operate; and 3) where Israel's new security perimeter will be.
According to the defense minister, Hamas now accepts that Israel will hold onto control of the Philadelphi Corridor.
Hamas is still trying to hold onto the ability to possess arms, even if in secret, and to maintain itself as a political organization, even if not officially in charge, in order to try to control Gaza from behind the scenes.
Katz and the government would like to expel Hamas's leadership, although he could not answer which leadership he sought to expel, given that Israel has already killed nearly all of Hamas's top leaders over the last 20 months, from Saleh al-Arouri to Marwan Issa to Ismail Haniyeh to Mohammed Deif to Yahya Sinwar to Mohammed Sinwar and many others.
Likewise, Katz and the government want to keep GHF running to continue to break Hamas's control over food in Gaza, or at least southern Gaza.
Katz acknowledges new humanitarian areas in Rafah for Gazans to be free of Hamas
A new revelation Katz made was that the Defense Ministry would build a new humanitarian area in the Rafah area for at least 600,000 Palestinians to come into, which would be free of Hamas.Anyone who entered would have limits on their ability to go in and out of the area and would only get to enter upon being carefully checked for possessing weapons, but once entering, Palestinian civilians would be viewed as safe both from the IDF's perspective of needing to watch out for threats, as well as from the civilians perspective that there would be no Israeli attacks there.
In addition, the implication was that the area would be provided with sufficient food and shelter to live with less day-to-day concern about the ups and downs of such issues during the current war.
More broadly, Katz said that the purpose of this area would be to permanently remove large, and possibly even larger groups in the future, of Palestinian civilians from the control and influence of Hamas,
The hope would be that this new humanitarian area would both help isolate Hamas militarily and gradually bring down its wider rule by showing more Palestinians that they could live better without Hamas in charge than with it in charge.
Katz also referred to a later date when Gaza would be run by some hybrid of international and regional players, such as Egypt, the UAE, Jordan, the Saudis, the US, and maybe others.
However, he continued to insist that the Palestinian Authority would not have a role in managing Gaza, and not only Hamas but also all of the Arab allies of Israel cited above that it needs to help rebuild and administer Gaza have said they will not participate unless the PA is involved.
At earlier stages of the conflict, Israeli defense officials, some US officials, and international officials have suggested the PA be involved not by name but by having officials known to be affiliated with it, helping to run the show.
During those earlier stages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected such compromises, hoping to keep the PA out entirely, and the PA rejected any involvement without its being officially recognized for its role in Gaza.
It is unclear if any of the parties may be more flexible in their positions on this issue at this point.
Katz says IDF trying to control entire strip unnecessarily endangers hostages
Another change was that Katz openly acknowledged that continuing the war into the 25% portion of the Gaza Strip that Israel does not yet control would unnecessarily endanger the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas.This is the new line that the IDF Chief of Staff, Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir is also taking in pushing to end the war.
Until now, the standard Netanyahu, Katz, and government line was always that more military pressure and attacks would always be helpful, and not harmful, to getting Hamas to return more hostages.
Yonah Jeremy Bob
Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-860281
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