Biden admin held secret meeting with Israel, UAE on future of Gaza

US, United Arab Emirates, and Israel secretly meet to discuss the ‘day after’ in the Gaza Strip, with proposals for temporarily international mission to police Gaza.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

Israeli, American, and United Arab Emirates officials met secretly recently to discuss plans for the administration of the Gaza Strip after the current war, Axios reported Tuesday.

Citing two Israeli officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, the report said that the three sides held a sub rosa gathering in Abu Dhabi last Thursday in order to mull possible arrangements for “the day after” in the Gaza Strip.

The trilateral meeting was reportedly hosted by UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin-Zayed, and included Biden’s National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, Brett McGurk, State Department counselor Tom Sullivan, and Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs and Netanyahu loyalist Ron Dermer, with two senior Israeli defense officials also said to accompany Dermer.

On Wednesday, a day before the meeting, Bin-Zayed’s special envoy, Lana Nusseibeh, went public with some of their proposals for governing a post-war Gaza with an op-ed piece published by The Financial Times.

In the article, Nusseibeh proposed establishing an international force which would temporarily police the Gaza Strip after the end of the war between Israel and Hamas.

The international force would be tasked with maintaining law and order in the Strip, addressing humanitarian needs, and preparing a new governing body to assume control of the coastal enclave.

Nusseibeh added that the force could enter Gaza on the invitation of the Palestinian Authority – a condition which could enable the UAE to take part in the mission – but only after the Palestinian Authority elects a new premier and undergoes extensive internal reforms.

The UAE also conditioned its involvement in such an arrangement on Israel’s formal endorsement of the two-state solution and establishment of a Palestinian state.

The conditions appear to be a response to calls by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the UAE to finance and oversee the reconstruction and deradicalization of the Gaza Strip after the current war.