Defense Minister Says Israel Won't Assert Civil Control Over Gaza Post-War, In Bow To US Pressure

Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant on Friday published and circulated a document laying out the military's "vision for Phase 3" of the Gaza war, which ostensibly lays out a new scaled-down, more targeted approach for operations in the Gaza Strip. 

However, Gallant made clear the contents of the plan are not yet official Israeli policy, only that these are his ideas. "In the northern region of the Gaza strip, we will transition to a new combat approach in accordance with military achievements on the ground," Gallant’s office said of the policy proposal.

Operations will continue to focus on raids, demolishing tunnels, air and ground strikes, as well special forces operations in the north - even including all of these tactics apparently also continuing in the south, which will go on "for as long as is deemed necessary" until Hamas is eradicated and the hostages are freed.

Israel has recently announced a drawdown of reserve forces active in the Gaza Strip, and repositioning of troops, with an eye toward more targeted operations, which has been widely seen as a nod to US pressure for the campaign to deescalate. Gaza's Health Ministry has cited a Palestinian death toll of over 22,400 - which it says are mostly women and children.

Defense chief Gallant's plan is most interesting when it comes to the Hamas 'day after' - given this has been a point of contention between the Netanyahu and Biden governments. The White House has floated a plan that would eventually give control over to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA).

But Netanyahu has consistently rejected this, calling the PA terror supporters and sympathizers. But the Gallant plan is seeking to strike a compromise, it appears: 

"Gaza residents are Palestinian, therefore Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the State of Israel," Gallant’s office said in a statement on Thursday.

Al Jazeera’s Sara Khairat, reporting from Tel Aviv, said Gallant made it clear that Israeli officials want a "Palestinian entity" to be in charge of running civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip, but with "very specific conditions".

“Those conditions are that they won’t act hostile towards Israel, and they won’t act against it in any way, shape, or form.”

It's unclear who this "Palestinian entity" would be if the PA is not considered among the options. But the importance in this lies in that it's another significant concession to Washington's will... an affirmation that Israel won't assert civilian control over Gaza in a post-war scenario.

However, the reality is that we could be years from seeing any such 'day after' plan materialize, given that Hamas is still intact, after having lost likely thousands of fighters. And the sad question must be asked: will there be any Palestinian civilians remaining in the Strip to speak of?

Hamas will meanwhile continue to employ guerrilla tactics utilizing small teams which attack from the vast network of tunnels, which means they do not suffer large-scale losses in any single assault operation.

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Below: Hamas has been publishing footage of its close-quarter ambushes in Gaza almost on a daily basis...