Israel unofficially asked that the Palestinian Authority run the Rafah crossing in Gaza, four senior officials from Israel, the United States and the Palestinian Authority told Axios in a report published on Monday night.
The proposal, if true, would be the first invitation Israel has extended to the Palestinian Authority to join or facilitate issues relating to the war, according to Axios.
Egypt has reportedly halted sending aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing and has promised to continue delaying aid until Israeli forces withdraw from the Palestinian side of Rafah. Given the repeated warning from the United Nations and other international bodies, the threat of withheld aid could place even more pressure on the precarious humanitarian situation in the enclave.
Security Minister Yoav Gallant told Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a Sunday night phone call that Israel is open to many solutions for the Rafah crossing except for a return of Hamas, an Israeli source told Axios.Another senior official reported that the Israeli government was seeking to bring in Palestinian leadership who were unconnected to Hamas to help manage the site.
Officials from all three groups reported that the condition on bringing in PA control would involve the caveat that they identify themselves as a local aid committee and not an extension of the PA.
The condition reportedly upset PA President Mahmoud Abbas, who said they would not agree to fulfill this roll undercover.
Abbas’s officials also reportedly demanded that Israel release Palestinian tax revenues, which were withheld by Finance Minister Bazael Smotrich as the PA was pushing the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials.
A US official told the source that the PA was also likely hesitant as they did not want to be attacked by Hamas, who kicked the PA out the enclave in 2007.
Plans for a post-Hamas Gaza
Local Palestinians would govern Gaza after the war with the help of an International coalition, which would also provide internal security, according to a plan presented to the war cabinet and the security cabinet in January.
Despite the vision for a Hamas-free Gaza, a December poll published by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) found that 51% of Gaza-based Palestinians thought Hamas would continue to run Gaza after the war is over.
Yonah Jeremy Bob, Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.
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