Jerusalem.- Israel’s Security Cabinet approved this Sunday a pilot program to restore the management of basic resources in an area of southern Gaza, supervised on the ground by agencies of the Peace Board of U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli media reported.
The goal is to establish a pilot ‘humanitarian zone’ in the coming weeks in the city of Rafah, in the far south of Gaza, fully controlled by the Israeli Army, according to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. The creation of this space would involve the deployment of the International Stabilization Force stipulated in the truce agreement.
The measure has been approved by Israel’s Security Cabinet, composed of members of the Government and other senior officials from the national security establishment. According to Yedioth Ahronoth, only the Minister of National Security, the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir, voted against it.
Composed of “about 200 representatives”
A senior Israeli official told the local press that the International Stabilization Force body that will enter the enclave will be composed of “about 200 representatives from friendly countries (to Israel) such as Uganda or Morocco”.
The program will involve the construction of temporary housing for the population that decides to move to this pilot area in Rafah, having first to undergo verification processes to rule out links with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. Israeli media do not report what such a process consists of or what will be considered a link to the organization.
“This is the first area that will be managed by the Palestinian ‘technocrat government’ (NCAG), with the backing of the International Stabilization Force (ISF), which is being formed these days and will be composed of soldiers from various countries,” continues Yedioth Ahronoth.
The entry of this force will depend on the approval, still pending, of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu; the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz; and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gideon Saar.
Israel will continue to occupy territory up to the yellow line
According to the senior official cited by the local press, Israel will continue to occupy territory up to the yellow line, the imaginary demarcation to which troops withdrew at the start of the truce, which the Army has moved to gain ground in violation of the truce over the last few months.
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“There will be no withdrawal of any kind until Hamas has been disarmed and Gaza has been completely demilitarized,” he adds.
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If the pilot works, Yedioth Ahronoth reports, it will be extended to other areas of Gaza.
The creation of a zone in Rafah to which the population of Gaza would be forcibly displaced, concentrating a better provision of basic resources there, was already part of Netanyahu’s plan in 2025, who presented that initiative in a press conference held in May of that year.
Even then, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned that this alleged humanitarian zone could constitute the creation of “massive concentration camps.”
Months later, with the ceasefire agreement in effect and the Peace Board established, an analysis by the London-based research agency Forensic Architecture based on satellite imagery indicated that the land in Rafah was being leveled to establish one of these pilot communities, this time under the auspices of the body established by Donald Trump.
