As Pressure Mounts, Israeli Minister Proposes Plan for Postwar Gaza

Source: New York Times

As Pressure Mounts, Israeli Minister Proposes Plan for Postwar Gaza

Roni Rabin
Updated Sat, January 6, 2024 at 10:21 AM EST·5 min read

TEL AVIV, Israel — As Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to the Middle East on Friday in an effort to ease escalating tensions, Israel’s defense minister floated a postwar plan for the Gaza Strip that exposed divisions in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime government.

The proposal by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who is a moderate member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, was widely seen as a trial balloon, but it showed the pressure Israel was facing as the United States and others press for a shift to a less intense phase of the war.

Further complicating diplomatic efforts in the region, Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the powerful armed group Hezbollah, which has been clashing with Israeli forces along the Israel-Lebanese border, on Friday ruled out any negotiations to stop the fighting until the war in Gaza ended.

Gallant’s proposal, shared Thursday at a stormy meeting of the Israeli security Cabinet, is predicated on the military’s defeat of Hamas in Gaza. It calls for Israel to maintain military control of Gaza’s borders while a “multinational task force” oversees reconstruction and economic development in the territory, which has been devastated by nearly three months of relentless Israeli airstrikes.

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