The two main Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, are coalescing around a plan for Gaza’s reconstruction when major fighting stops. Its main selling point: Neither will be in charge.
Palestinian officials from both factions, long bitter rivals, have reached a consensus to create an apolitical committee of Palestinian technocrats not affiliated with either of them to manage the sensitive and massive jobs of aid distribution and rebuilding, Palestinian and other Arab officials said. Their acquiescence clears one potential obstacle to a postwar plan discussed by the U.S. and Israel, which would put a temporary technocratic government in place in Gaza until it is stable enough for elections.
“They have a lot more room and urgency for common ground now and to avoid being sidelined,” said Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a policy fellow at the Palestinian Policy Network, a think tank.
Hamas is open to a committee not aligned with Palestinian factions to oversee aid and reconstruction, Husam Badran, a member of Hamas’s Doha-based political bureau, said in an interview. Fatah is also warming to the idea of an apolitical Gaza committee, said officials in the Palestine Liberation Organization political body and the Palestinian Authority, both controlled by Fatah. “An agreement [on such a formula] is likely,” said a senior official from the Palestinian Authority.
The initiative is fraught with uncertainty and dependent on a cease-fire deal that Hamas and Israel haven’t been able to agree on for more than a year. Even if the two Palestinian sides work out differences that have separated them for decades, it is unclear whether Israel would accept such a committee. The Israeli government is determined to stamp out what remains of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, and opposed to the Palestinian Authority’s involvement in running Gaza after the war.
Egypt, acting as a mediator between Israel and Hamas in cease-fire talks, originally proposed a technocratic committee for postwar Gaza in December, with backing from another significant player in humanitarian aid, the United Arab Emirates. Israel and the U.S. have floated the possibility of a technocratic government after the war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel doesn’t want to occupy Gaza after the war. Beyond that, Israel released a blueprint in February that said the strip’s administration would be “based as much as possible on local officials” and “will not be identified with countries or entities that support terrorism.”
Israel’s military is also considering plans to slice up the enclave into “safe islands” or fortified corridors to allow raids when it deems necessary. Netanyahu’s office declined to comment.
An Israeli soldier closes a border fence leading to the Gaza Strip. Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images
The current U.S. administration wants Gaza to be unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority and without a role for Hamas in its governance, a State Department spokesman said. “Palestinian people’s voices, self-determination and aspirations must be at the center of postcrisis governance in Gaza,” he said.
President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t specified a vision for Palestinian governance. A plan he backed during his first term foresaw a sovereign state in the West Bank and Gaza in which Israel would be allowed to annex existing settlements.
The Palestinian factions also might struggle to convince Arab states that have tried unsuccessfully for months to nudge Israel and Hamas toward a cease-fire. Last week, Qatar asked Hamas’s political leaders to leave the Gulf country after their presence failed to bring out a cessation of fighting.
The proposal for an apolitical aid and reconstruction committee was discussed in Cairo earlier this month in a meeting between Hamas officials Badran and Khalil al-Hayya—the group’s chief negotiator—and West Bank-based Fatah leaders Azzam al-Ahmad and Mahmoud al-Aloul, according to Palestinian officials.
The committee would operate alongside a proposed government of technocrats that would run the postwar Palestinian territories until elections are held, Badran and Fatah-aligned officials said. Talks have so far failed to reach an agreement on how that government would be set up. And both sides worry about being jilted.
A poster bears a portrait of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah in the West Bank. Photo: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images
“There is fear that international powers will deal with the committee directly,” bypassing the Palestinian Authority entirely, said an official in the PLO.
Hamas, an Islamist group, has long opposed a significant role in postwar Gaza affairs for the secular Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank. Hamas also opposes any outside party governing Palestinians in Gaza, Badran said. The group forcibly ousted Fatah from Gaza in 2007 after winning elections the year before. But the current war has forced both sides to change tack.
No end is in sight for the war in Gaza. Cease-fire talks are moribund, and Trump’s election victory raises uncertainty about the Biden administration’s ability to push them forward. Egypt is struggling to expand humanitarian access to the enclave. The committee plan faces hurdles even within Palestinian ranks.
Rebuilding Gaza will be a gargantuan task. The enclave has descended into chaos with crime and violence, from robbery and killings to smuggling and protection rackets. Two-thirds of the buildings have been damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations. Rebuilding war-racked Gaza could cost up to $40 billion, a U.N. agency said in May.
Hamas and Fatah leaders agreed that the committee overseeing aid and reconstruction would be made up of up to 15 independent Palestinian figures not aligned to any movement. Its mandate wouldn’t be political. Instead, it would focus purely on distributing humanitarian assistance, in Gaza and healthcare and rebuilding the enclave, according to Badran and other Palestinian and Arab officials.
Displaced Palestinians near their tents, set up along the beach at a refugee camp in Gaza. Photo: Mohammed Saber/EPA/Shutterstock
Mahmoud Habbash, a senior adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the unaligned nature of the proposed committee meant “Hamas must admit that it has failed in managing the Gaza Strip.”
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Still, Habbash said a detailed agreement on the committee’s workings had yet to be reached. Hamas and Fatah disagree on how involved the Palestinian Authority would be in running it, say Palestinian officials.
The Palestinian Authority oversaw both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip before the 2007 split with Hamas, leaving a divide in governance of Palestinian territories. Efforts to negotiate a reconciliation have long failed to bear fruit.
Earlier this year, Hamas detained several Palestinian Authority officials who had entered Gaza and tried to prevent an aid convoy overseen by Palestinian Authority staff from traveling in the enclave.
Anat Peled contributed to this article.