A new Egyptian proposal would see the Gaza Strip demilitarized in return for Israel and Egypt lifting the blockade currently in place and a series of international projects to improve the situation in the coastal enclave, Egyptian security forces and senior Palestinian officials in Gaza and Ramallah report.
According to the plan, the Palestinian organizations, under the leadership of either Hamas or an umbrella political group representing all the organizations in Gaza, would remain in charge of internal affairs in the Gaza Strip through the use of the security mechanisms already in place in there.
The plan would allow some light weaponry to remain in Gaza to be used mostly for domestic security purposes. The number of those weapons would be reduced and strictly monitored.
Once these steps were implemented, Israeli and Egypt would lift their blockade on Gaza and introduce large-scale infrastructure, employment, economic, health, and education projects. Project funding would come from the U.N., the EU, and Arab states, in particular the Persian Gulf states. The proposed plan would also see the opening of a maritime channel to a port in Gaza, which in its first stages would allow Gaza to directly import and export goods.
According to Egyptian security officials as well as senior Palestinian officials in Gaza and Ramallah, Jerusalem and Cairo have come to realize that Hamas is not going anywhere. They say that Egypt and Israel have also come to terms with the fact that the Palestinian Authority will be hard-pressed to return to power in Gaza, either under a Palestinian unity agreement or as a result of the collapse of the Hamas regime in light of the dire humanitarian situation and the continued military conflict with Israel.
The Egyptian sources emphasized that the IDF policy of containment when it comes to Gaza is due to Jerusalem's desire to avoid the collapse of the Hamas regime. They said Israel fears that if Hamas were toppled, radical pro-Iranian or Salafist organizations identified with the Islamic State group would fill the power vacuum.
The prevailing assessment in Israel and in Egypt is that the proposal could be implemented in three to five years and that the main obstacle would be Hamas' and the other armed Palestinian factions' opposition to demilitarization.
The Palestine Liberation Organization and the PA in Ramallah are also likely to oppose the move, since they view demilitarizing Gaza as mainly serving Israel's interests, which they fear include the dissolution of the vision of an independent Palestinian state. According to senior officials in Ramallah, PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO leadership would agree to the demilitarization of Hamas and the other factions in Gaza on the condition the PA was put in control of the enclave and tasked with leading the project.
At any rate, officials in Cairo and Jerusalem are inclined to see the nascent agreement in a positive light, and the U.S. security echelon has received drafts of the plan compiled by Israeli and Egyptian teams.
A senior Egyptian security official said, "We are now waiting for the new government that will be elected in Israel in order to speed up the process, with the goal following the elections in Israel being to involve other influential Arab states such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Persian Gulf states."
He said, "If Abu Mazen [Abbas] and the leadership in Ramallah do not pile on the obstacles, it will be possible to carry out the plan with the full cooperation of all the regional factors through the provision of guarantees and aid from the international community."
But the source admitted there would likely be "strong resistance to the plan for the demilitarization of the [Gaza] Strip …., both on the part of the PLO and the armed factions in Gaza especially."
