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Israeli official backs plan to put non-Hamas Gazans in charge of aid distribution

After the war, those who were in charge of aid distribution would then go on to govern Gaza with the backing of Arab nations. 

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

An Israeli official has endorsed a plan to delegate authority for the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza to locals who have no ties to the Hamas terror organization, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

The Israeli official is in talks with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan regarding the plan to put Palestinian businessmen who have no Hamas ties in control of distributing humanitarian aid, as a way of wresting control over the flow of goods in Gaza away from Hamas.

The supplies would reach Gaza by land or by sea and after inspection by Israelis would be sent to warehouses in central Gaza before distribution.

According to the plan, after the war, those who were in charge of aid distribution would then go on to govern Gaza with the backing of Arab nations.

The proposal removes obstacles to delivering and distributing aid to Gazans and fills the power vacuum that Hamas could easily step into after the war is over.

However, one challenge facing the plan is that it hasn’t received the approval of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mainly because the Arabs in charge may have ties with Fatah and the Palestinian Authority which still hasn’t condemned Hamas’s October 7th massacre.

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Additionally, Hamas is already threatening Arabs not to cooperate with the plan.

Although Hamas has had “no formal role in distributing aid in Gaza” it nevertheless “views the nascent Israeli plan as a way to create an independent governing structure,” as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

A senior Hamas official has threatened, “We will strike with an iron hand against anyone who tampers with the internal front in the Gaza Strip and will not permit the imposition of new rules.”

It was reported that a few Palestinian families who agreed to cooperate with the plan have backed off because of direct threats by Hamas.