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US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said it would neither “make sense” nor be “right” for Israel to reoccupy Gaza, as American and Israeli officials continue to push diverging visions of the strip’s postwar future.
President Joe Biden’s US administration has made clear that the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and ran Gaza until it was ousted by Hamas in 2007, should play a key role in the enclave once the war between Israel and Hamas is over.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out a return of the PA to Gaza, and Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s five-man war cabinet, on Thursday evening set out a vision of the enclave’s future that involved Israel maintaining full security control and “taking territory” that would provide a launch pad for future operations.
Speaking at a briefing in Tel Aviv on Friday, Sullivan insisted Israel did not “have a long-term plan to occupy Gaza”, and said the US was having “intensive” discussions with Israel over the timeframe of the transition to a new Palestinian administration in Gaza and how it should occur.
But he stressed that the US position on Gaza’s future was “clear”. “We do not believe that it makes sense for Israel or is right for Israel to occupy Gaza, reoccupy Gaza over the long term, and . . . we would like to see ultimately that transition take place,” he said.
Sullivan also sought to play down disagreements between Israel and the US over the conduct of the war itself, saying there was “no contradiction” between assertions by Israeli officials that it would take “months” to defeat Hamas, and US urgings for Israel to switch to a less intense phase of war in the near future.
Sullivan met several senior Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, and is due to travel to the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967 but which Palestinians seek as the heart of a future state, later on Friday to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Sullivan said he expected to discuss how to reform the PA, but dodged a question over whether the US thought that the 88-year-old Abbas was the right person to run it.
“At a basic level, we do believe that the Palestinian Authority needs to be revamped and revitalised, needs to be updated in terms of its method of governance, its representation of the Palestinian people,” he said.
“And that will require a lot of work by everybody who is engaged in the Palestinian Authority, starting with the president . . . And ultimately, it’s going to be up to the Palestinian people to work through their representation.”
Speaking ahead of the meeting, a senior US official said that in addition to discussing the stability of the West Bank, Sullivan and Abbas would also discuss “what comes next in Gaza”, and suggested that some PA security personnel in the enclave could provide “some sort of a nucleus” of a security force there once the war with Hamas is over.
“There’s broad agreement that the future of Gaza should be Palestinian-led,” the official said. “There are a number of Gazans who have been part of the Palestinian Authority security forces in the past, and that might be able to serve as a nucleus for future force. But I want to stress that is one idea of many.”
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas militants carried out the deadliest ever attack on Israeli territory, killing about 1,200 people according to Israeli officials, and taking another 240 hostage.
More than 18,000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s assault on the enclave, according to Palestinian officials, and as the death toll has risen, there has been mounting international pressure for a ceasefire.
Sullivan said Israel had a “responsibility to act in a way that distinguishes between terrorist targets and innocent people, and to take every precaution to protect civilians and minimise the loss of life”.
But he stressed the US’s “continued commitment to support Israel” and said that Israel “has a right, indeed a duty to defend itself against Hamas”.
Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington
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