Hamas says Netanyahu’s post-war plan ‘will never succeed’

The post-war plan for Gaza presented this Friday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will never succeed,” a spokesman for the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said at a press conference in Beirut.

“When it comes to the next day in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu is putting forward ideas that he knows will never succeed,” Osama Hamdane said.

The document, which Netanyahu presented to the government security service on Thursday evening and which the Agence France-Presse (AFP) had access to this Friday, emphasizes in its preamble the army’s goals in the Gaza Strip: to eliminate Hamas and Islamic Jihad and to release all hostages still held .

The Israeli army “will exercise security control over the entire area west of Jordan, including the Gaza Strip,” “to prevent the strengthening of terrorist elements” and contain “threats against Israel,” the document stressed, adding that Israel will maintain “its operational freedom of action throughout the Gaza Strip without time limit.”

“This plan is not destined to come true […] because the reality of Gaza and the reality of the Palestinians can only be determined by the Palestinians themselves,” Hadmane said.

“[Netanyahu] categorically refuses to recognize a Palestinian state. […] This raises the question of whether he and others like him have the right to engage in political discussions with the Palestinians,” he added.

Netanyahu stressed that the region would become a demilitarized territory after destroying the military capabilities and government infrastructure of both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, releasing the hostages and preventing Gaza from becoming a threat again.

In the medium term, the Israeli Prime Minister announced that Israel would maintain freedom of military operations “without time limit” in the Gaza Strip, establishing a border security perimeter and Israeli control of the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt to prevent the re-emergence of “terrorist elements” in enclave.

“The Southern Fence will operate – in cooperation, to the extent possible, with Egypt and with the assistance of the United States – based on measures to prevent smuggling from Egypt, both underground and by air, including at the Rafah crossing.” , according to plan.

Israel also says it will maintain security control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian enclave will “undergo complete demilitarization” to maintain public order.

As for civil administration and public order, they will be regulated by local officials with administrative experience away from “countries or entities that support terrorism and do not receive payment from them,” the document announced a “comprehensive deradicalization program” of religious institutions. and educational activities in the enclave with the help of other Arab countries.

In the long term, Netanyahu insists on abandoning a Palestinian state or the “international dictate of a permanent agreement” and envisions the end of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), “whose agents were involved in the October 7 massacre,” it said. document, despite the lack of convincing evidence of the involvement of officials of this UN body in the attack on Israel.

“Israel will obstruct UNRWA activities in the Gaza Strip and replace them with responsible international aid agencies,” the plan states.

The war between Israel and Hamas was sparked by an unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement in southern Israel on October 7 that killed some 1,160 people, most of them civilians.

The Israeli retaliatory offensive has already killed more than 29,500 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to Hamas.