Israel Sets Up Army Unit To Oversee Control Of Gaza 'For Years To Come'

Israeli media news site Ynet has reported that the Israeli army is preparing to occupy and control the Gaza Strip for years to come, and this is increasingly the default assumption of Israeli military officers in the absence of a clearly defined long-term mission by top leadership.

The outlet wrote that this comes "in the absence of clear strategic goals for the future of the Gaza Strip." The report continued, "The Israeli army began yesterday through this appointment to accept the fact that its responsibility for the Strip will continue for years and will expand, and about two million Palestinians will remain under its responsibility."

The military's Lt. Col. Elad Goren has been appointed Head of Humanitarian-Civilian Effort in Gaza to oversee these longer term efforts. "This new position is not for show … It will have an important role for years to come … Anyone who believes that Israeli control and intervention in the Gaza Strip will end soon, whether by stopping or not stopping the fighting and its decline, or even with or without a deal, is mistaken," a  high-ranking security official told Ynet. 

The scope of the new position is to include overseeing humanitarian aid deliveries, the restoration of civilian infrastructure, and coordinating with humanitarian aid groups. 

Ultimately this is also to prevent the potential for Hamas to ever return as a local government authority in any part of the Gaza Strip. What Hamas was doing before Oct.7 in terms of administering Gaza cities will now be done by Israel.

"On the agenda of the new unit in the Israeli army will be major operations, which have already begun, to evacuate the seriously wounded and sick to hospitals in Jordan, Egypt or the UAE … and preparing for winter in the Gaza Strip, in light of the massive amount of destroyed infrastructure, as well as coordinating the campaign to vaccinate more than a million Gazans against polio," Ynet detailed further.

Among the bigger long-term initiatives will be to "work with the international community to restore all civilian facilities that collapsed in the Strip." In many cases this has involved the collapse of electricity generation and even water. Many Gazans say that at this point "nothing is left".

Currently, Israel has greenlighted a UN-spearheaded polio vaccination program for children of the Gaza Strip. Some 2,000 health workers are expected to enter Gaza this week, and the IDF reportedly agreed to implement phased pauses in its operations according to different zones, starting in central Gaza.

But there are deeply conflicting statements coming from Israeli top leadership on the lingering question of whether a 'polio pause' will actually be implemented as of Sunday...

If the pause is not implemented, this will only add to the international heat and pressure Netanyahu is experiencing. The UN and World Health Organization (WHO) have been particularly vocal after a ten-month year old baby was reportedly paralyzed by the deadly polio disease, and now there are worries over a potential major outbreak.