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The Dismal Status Quo of Gaza: What Can Be Done?
Trucks carrying aid move, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hussam Al-Masri
The first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel is shakily proceeding. Hamas, despite threatening to halt agreed hostage releases, freed three more captives on Saturday, and the IDF will maintain its withdrawal from the Netzerim corridor in central Gaza. All as previously agreed.
Unfortunately, phase 2 — negotiation of a permanent war-ending truce including Hamas’ release of the 65 or so hostages remaining in captivity (after stage 1) — is not going to happen. The Netanyahu government’s preconditions for a permanent truce include not only the release of all hostages, but the disarmament of Gaza and exile of Hamas’ leaders.
Hamas, in turn, even if potentially able to negotiate the release of hundreds more Palestinian security prisoners, is not likely to agree to surrender its armed foothold in Gaza — because Hamas’ fundamentalist Jihadist credo is dedicated to the destruction of Israel, not to the rehabilitation of Gaza and relief for its displaced and distressed masses. That ideological fixation precludes military surrender.
Without a phase 2 truce deal, the picture is gloomy. To implement its original plan to uproot and disarm Hamas, including the 15,000 soldiers Hamas now claims under its command, the IDF would have to reinvade Gaza. There would be prolonged gorilla warfare, with considerable casualties on both sides. There would be collateral civilian casualties and continued dislocation of Gazan civilians. The remaining Israeli hostages will likely die in captivity. Resumption of hostilities is indeed a dismal prospect.
Some Israeli public voices fault Benjamin Netanyahu for the coming failure of negotiations, citing selfish political motives for prolonging the Israel/Hamas war. Netanyahu knows that if the war ends at this stage, there will be new elections and his reign as prime minister will likely end. This is because his current coalition partners are fixated on a total victory. For these ultra nationalists, this means not only disarmament of Hamas but long-term Israeli presence in the Gaza strip.
Absent the peril facing 65 more hostages, the case for the IDF finishing the uprooting of Hamas might be stronger.
Hamas is an abomination — a radical Jihadist sect viewing Jews as sub-humans to be pursued and killed (according to the 1988 Hamas charter). A long-standing terrorist menace, Hamas, on October 7, 2023, perpetrated the worst disaster in modern Jewish history — an onslaught including mass murder, torture, and kidnapping of children and the elderly.
Hamas’ continuing brutality and dehumanization were illustrated in the pictures of the recently released male hostages — gaunt, debilitated, and abused by 15 months of being held underground and chained. The hundreds of thousands of Israelis living within missile range of Gaza deserve to be free of the terrorist peril that Hamas poses. Yet liquidating Hamas’ lingering armed menace entails excruciating costs – jeopardizing the lives of remaining hostages and of those IDF soldiers to be re-dispatched to Gaza.
What is the impact of President Donald Trump’s plan to displace the bulk of Gazan residents and to rebuild Gaza in a fashion making it suitable for ultimate American ownership? The notion of mass, forced transfer of Gazans is delusional. As Shira Efron commented: “Turning Gaza into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ is not a serious plan. It is unfeasible politically, with certain rejection by dozens of countries and the Arab states. Who will pay for it? Who will carry it out? What countries would take Palestinians in? And most important, do Palestinians want to leave?”
The impracticality of the Trump plan is indeed patent. Trump envisioned Jordan and Egypt as the prime recipients of Gaza’s transferred refugees. But both King Abdullah and President el Sisi, along with Saudi Arabia, have expressed opposition to mass transfer. His threat to use foreign aid as leverage is meaningful, but unlikely to work in the face of worldwide condemnation of mass ouster of Palestinian civilians from Gaza. It also gives leverage to those who claimed that Israel’s plan all along was to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians.
The clearest impact of the Trump displacement plan is to reinforce the resistance of the Netanyahu coalition to any resolution of the Israel/Hamas war, short of total victory. Trump has radically departed from the Biden administration’s position (endorsed by several other past presidents) that the Palestinians in Gaza ought to be part of a two-state solution — forming a demilitarized, sovereign state along with West Bank Palestinians. (Trump has promised a declaration about the status of the West Bank within a short time).
In essence, Trump’s support for a Palestinian-free Gaza undercuts the widespread Israeli public pressure for Netanyahu to promptly negotiate an end to the war against Hamas and the return of all hostages. In the continued absence of a viable “day after” plan for civil administration of Gaza, the Netanyahu coalition can pursue the idea of occupation, if not Jewish settlement, in Gaza.
While the Trump plan is delusional, there is an element of justice buried within it. Trump is right that most of Gaza is now rubble and that neighboring countries have the space to accommodate relocation of many Gazans. Israel has never pushed for forced transfer of Palestinians from disputed territory and such an idea engenders both widespread condemnation and raises serious issues of international law.
But what if some Gazans want to escape the debacle that Hamas has precipitated? Shouldn’t they be allowed to make such a voluntary choice free of intimidation by Hamas? And shouldn’t Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia be subject to pressure to accommodate those Gazans who wish to leave? Arab world intransigence toward any migration of Palestinians is reminiscent of the historic exploitation of Palestinian refugees (from Israel’s 1948 war against invading Arab armies) as a destabilizing force against Israel.
Norman L. Cantor is Emeritus Professor of Law at Rutgers University Law School where he taught for 35 years. He also served as visiting professor at Columbia, Seton Hall, Tel Aviv University, and Hebrew University of Jerusalem law schools. He has published five books, scores of scholarly articles in law journals, and, more recently, numerous blog length commentaries (often on Israel/U.S. relations) in outlets like The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, and The Algemeiner. His personal blog is seekingfairness.wordpress.com. He lives in Tel Aviv and in Hoboken, NJ.
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Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
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Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
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US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
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