Israel reveals plan for how it would run a future Gaza Strip

A long-awaited postwar plan by Israel’s prime minister shows that his government seeks open-ended control over security and civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip. That was swiftly rejected by Palestinian leaders and runs counter to Washington’s vision.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the two-page document to his security cabinet for approval.

Deep disagreements over Gaza’s future have led to increasingly public friction between Israel and the United States, its closest ally. The Biden administration seeks eventual Palestinian governance in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a precursor to Palestinian statehood, an outcome vehemently opposed by Netanyahu and his government. Netanyahu’s plan envisions hand-picked Palestinians administering Gaza.

Separately, ceasefire efforts appeared to gain traction, with mediators to present a new proposal at an expected high-level meeting in Paris. The US, Egypt and Qatar have been struggling for weeks to find a formula that could halt Israel’s devastating offensive in Gaza, but now face an unofficial deadline as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan approaches.

In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes in the centre and south of the territory killed at least 92 Palestinians, including children and women.

After a strike levelled his apartment building in the central town of Deir al-Balah, online video showed Mahmoud Zueitar – a comedian well known in Gaza for his appearances in TV commercials – rushing into the hospital holding his young sister, who was screaming and covered in blood. At least 25 people were killed in the strike, 16 of them women and children.

Throughout the war, Zueitar has been posting upbeat and cheerful videos on social media, joking with people about ways they endure bombardment and displacement, praising Palestinian culture and assuring those around him that one day things will be better.

The overall Palestinian death toll since the start of the war rose to more than 29,500, with close to 70,000 people wounded, Gaza health officials said. The death toll amounts to close to 1.3 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.

Netanyahu’s plan, while lacking specifics, marks the first time he has presented a formal postwar vision. It reiterates that Israel is determined to crush Hamas, the militant group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007.

Netanyahu’s plan calls for freedom of action for Israel’s military across a demilitarised Gaza after the war to thwart any security threat. It says Israel would establish a kilometre-wide buffer zone inside Gaza, which is likely to provoke US objections.

The plan also envisions Gaza being governed by local officials who it says would ‘‘not be identified with countries or entities that support terrorism and will not receive payment from them’’.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers pockets of the Israelioccupied West Bank, denounced Netanyahu’s plan as ‘‘colonialist and racist’’.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had not seen details of the plan. But he said any plan should be consistent with basic principles the US had set out for Gaza’s future, ‘‘including that it cannot be a platform for terrorism, there should be no Israeli reoccupation of Gaza, the size of Gaza’s territory should not be reduced’’.