Egypt voices strong opposition to Israel's postwar plans for Gaza

Israeli military intends to split northern Gaza into five zones and only allow Palestinians over 60 to return

Drone image shows displaced people in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza. Reuters

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Egypt has told Israel of its strong opposition to its plans for postwar Gaza, including the creation of a buffer zone in northern Gaza and forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to move to areas close to its border, sources have told The National.

Cairo's opposition, the sources said, was relayed to representatives of Israel's Mossad spy agency and its security agency Shin Bet during talks held with Egyptian intelligence officials in Cairo on Sunday.

“It was long and tense,” said one of the sources of the meeting, which was attended by Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, who was appointed as Egypt's new intelligence chief last week.

Sharing some details of intelligence reports on Israel's plans for postwar Gaza, the sources told The National on Monday that Israel intended to carve up the northern part of the coastal enclave into five “security zones” in which infrastructure will be devastated to a degree that they will no longer be able to sustain communities.

They said the Israeli military will only allow displaced women and men over the age of 60 to return to their homes in northern Gaza, where local militiamen known to be opposed to Hamas will take charge of distributing humanitarian assistance. No reconstruction will be allowed in the area, they added.

“There will be direct Israeli military rule in northern Gaza backed by local militias drawn from clans known to be enemies of Hamas,” said another source. “The Benjamin Netanyahu government is determined to change all facets of life in Gaza with a combination of methodical evictions and genocide-level killings.”

There has been no official announcement from Egypt or Israel about Sunday's meeting, the first known face-to-face encounter between Israeli and Egyptian intelligence officials in weeks. Several meetings took place during nearly a year of fruitless negotiations led by Egypt and fellow mediators Qatar and the US to reach a Gaza ceasefire and secure the release of Israeli and other hostages held by Hamas since October 2023.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on the sources' claims but Israeli officials have said evacuation orders to residents in northern Gaza were aimed at separating Hamas fighters from civilians and denied there was a systematic plan to clear civilians out of Jabalia or other northern areas.

Israeli officials said forces operating in northern Gaza had killed scores of Hamas fighters and dismantled infrastructure belonging to the militant group. Hamas, however, said Israel was carrying out acts of “genocide and ethnic cleansing” against the people of northern Gaza to force them to leave.

The issue of Israel's military presence in the Salah Al Din (Philadelphi) corridor, a narrow strip that runs the length of Egypt's border with Gaza and includes the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, was also raised in Sunday's meeting, with the Egyptians renewing demands that Israeli troops leave the area.

Egypt contends that Israel's military presence there breaches the two countries' 1979 peace treaty and subsequent accords. For its part, Israel says it needs to remain there to prevent the use of tunnels between Egypt and Gaza to smuggle weapons and other hardware to Hamas, an accusation Egypt has repeatedly denied.

News of Israel's intention to create a buffer zone in northern Gaza came as the Israeli military deepened its operations in the area on Monday. It has burnt the Indonesian Hospital as well as buildings where thousands of people had been taking shelter.

They also rounded up men and ordered women to leave the Jabalia camp, the largest of the enclave's eight historical refugee camps. These actions validate the sources' assertions on Israel's intentions in the area.

The UN Human Rights Office said this week it was “increasingly concerned that the manner in which the Israeli military is conducting hostilities in northern Gaza, along with unlawful interference with humanitarian assistance and orders that are leading to forced displacement, may be causing the destruction of the Palestinian population in Gaza's northernmost governorate through death and displacement”.

Meanwhile, Washington announced on Monday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is making his 11th trip to the Middle East this week, visiting Israel and several Arab nations, including Egypt, in the course of a week-long tour.

The trip had been expected after the US President Joe Biden said last week that he would send Mr Blinken to the region following Israel's killing of Hamas military chief Yahya Sinwar, a development some believe could open a window for new talks on a ceasefire proposal.

“Throughout the region, Secretary Blinken will discuss the importance of bringing the war in Gaza to an end, securing the release of all hostages, and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. “He will continue discussions on post-conflict period planning and emphasise the need to chart a new path forward that enables Palestinians to rebuild their lives and realise their aspirations free from Hamas’s tyranny.”

According to Mr Miller, Mr Blinken will underscore the need for a dramatic increase in the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza, a priority he and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin mapped out in a letter to Israeli officials last week. That letter reminded Israel that the Biden administration could be forced by US law to curtail some forms of military aid should the delivery of humanitarian assistance continue to be hindered.

Israel has vowed to continue its war on Gaza until it eradicates Hamas following the group's attack on southern Israeli communities in October last year, which left around 1,200 dead. Its military response to that attack has killed more than 42,600 Palestinians, according to Hamas's health ministry, and laid waste to much of the territory. Most of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been displaced.