Israel planning military government in Gaza, as activists push for Jewish resettlement

Facts on the ground are being created without an official government decision on the matter, according to Ynet.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Some officials in the IDF’s Southern Command are pushing for a military government to be in charge of the Gaza Strip after Israel defeats Hamas, and are working with those political forces in favor of the move, Ynet reported Wednesday.

Implementation of such a plan also includes the seizure of more territory in the Strip.

The IDF has already established a no-go zone on the entire Gazan border with Israel, and greatly expanded its Netzarim Corridor that divides northern and southern Gaza.

It has also somewhat widened the Philadelphi Corridor on the Gazan side of the border with Egypt, which will better prevent arms smuggling to Hamas so it cannot revive itself militarily.

The report said that the IDF is also establishing military outposts in the coastal enclave, with the aim of all this being to enable “the de facto imposition of military rule.”

Citing sources familiar with the details, the news site said that in recent days, lively discussions have been taking place on the subject between various parties, including new Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, senior defense officials, and other senior ministers.

The report also noted that that the government is supposedly “working step by step” towards this goal without an official decision being made on who would rule in Gaza on “the day after.”

It is no secret that the national-religious parties in the coalition, Otzma Yehudit and the Religious Zionist Party, are in favor of Israel retaining control of Gaza after the war, seeing it as the only way to ensure Israel’s security in the long term.

The current push is the result of two occurrences, one local and one abroad, the report said.

The first was the dismissal two weeks ago of Yoav Gallant as defense minister, as he was a fierce opponent of Israel becoming responsible for all civilian life in Gaza, which is a position still held by most if not all of the senior echelon of the IDF.

The second was Donald Trump’s victory in this month’s presidential elections. Trump has announced a “dream team” of Americans who favor right-wing Israeli policies as his point men for issues in the Middle East, including the incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio and ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.

The report said elements in the settlement movement are saying that “this is a historic period of time for changing the reality on the ground vis-à-vis the Palestinians, and an opportunity that will not come again,” so that now is the time, even before Trump’s inauguration, to make concrete plans to rebuild Jewish communities at least in northern Gaza.

In their view, such plans and the taking of territory would then become the basis for the activities of the new administration, the report said.

Part of the reason that there are voices in the military in favor of seizing land in Gaza is that they feel it is necessary to exact a price from Hamas, and that this might be the only one that would prove to its followers and would-be followers that it has suffered a huge defeat, no matter how much it would try to twist the narrative that it had won the war somehow after it is over.