On Friday, the United States renewed its demand that Israel clarify its plan regarding who will rule Gaza after the war, and stressed the need to quickly resolve the dispute between Cairo and Tel Aviv regarding the crisis in the Strip.
This came in an interview conducted by the US Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, with the private Hebrew newspaper Haaretz.
The Hamas movement asserts that the issue of who will rule Gaza after the war is a Palestinian matter that will be decided by the factions and will be in accordance with the interests of its people.
But Liu said that the administration of US President Joe Biden has been demanding that Israel for months answer the question of who will rule Gaza if the occupation is able to overthrow Hamas.
He pointed to Washington’s agreement with Israel on the necessity of excluding Hamas from ruling Gaza and that the Israeli army should not permanently occupy the Strip.
“You have to have a plan for what comes next,” Liu said. “We have to reach a broad agreement on the alternative (to Hamas rule), and that is what diplomacy aims to achieve.”
The Egyptian-Israeli dispute
He considered that the Rafah crossing demonstrates the necessity of answering this question, in reference to the tension occurring between Egypt and Israel after the latter took control of the Palestinian side of the crossing on May 7.
Cairo and Tel Aviv exchanged accusations this week regarding the closure of the border crossing and the subsequent obstruction of relief efforts to the Strip.
Egypt says that the only reason for closing the Rafah crossing is the Israeli military operation in Rafah that began on May 6, and has repeatedly warned of an Israeli plan to forcibly displace Palestinians to Egypt through the attack on Rafah, considering this a red line.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Foreign Minister, Yisrael Katz, claimed a few days ago that the task of preventing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza “now falls to our Egyptian friends.”
Liu indicated that he did not want to go into details of the specific solutions being considered regarding the Rafah crossing, but he stressed the need to quickly resolve the dispute between Cairo and Tel Aviv due to the importance of the Israeli-Egyptian relationship and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
He considered that cooperation between Israel and Egypt is extremely important for the security of the two countries and the region, and there is awareness of the urgent need to resolve this matter due to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
In a related context, an American official told CNN that US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will hold meetings in Israel this weekend.
Israel has continued its aggression against Gaza since last October 7, which led to the death of more than 35,000 Palestinians, most of whom were women and children.
