Israeli writer and analyst Yoni Ben Menachem revealed that the administration of US President Joe Biden is planning to train a force of about 5,000 members of the Palestinian security forces to be deployed throughout the Gaza Strip with the aim of maintaining order after what he called “the day after the war.”
Ben Menachem explained in an article published by the Israeli website “Epoch” under the title “The path to disarmament in the Gaza Strip and the establishment of a buffer zone” that Israel will soon have to begin the process of disarming the Gaza Strip, at the same time that fighting continues in the south. sector, stressing that the process has already begun, but unofficially.
He explained that in the areas occupied by the Israeli army in the northern Gaza Strip, engineering units began blowing up wells and tunnels. So far, 1,500 wells and tens of kilometers of tunnels have been blown up, but the task is difficult and long.
He pointed out that the length of these tunnels had not yet been discovered when the Israeli army forces began their operations in Gaza, speaking about the 500 to 1,000 kilometers of tunnels that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) built 15 years ago, under the eyes of Israeli intelligence.
He continued that the disarmament of the Gaza Strip must be an integral part of the “day after” the war, and must be a proactive step for any other rule in the Gaza Strip instead of the rule of Hamas.
He said that Israel will prevent the return of Palestinian residents who were evacuated from the northern Gaza Strip to areas with tunnels, as long as these tunnels are not completely destroyed by the Israeli army, because this is in the interest of the residents themselves who are looking for that calm, as the presence of such tunnels In the region, this means that Hamas fighters will return to hide there, and thus the Israeli army will attack them again.
Area B
On the day after the war, as he calls it, the writer says that Israel must deal with the Gaza Strip as Area B, as is the case in the West Bank, where comprehensive security control is in its hands, and it is able to enter the Gaza Strip immediately in the event of any intelligence information for intervention.
In parallel, according to the author, Israel must establish a buffer zone along the border with the Gaza Strip, two kilometers deep, planting minefields and warning and monitoring measures to “prevent terrorists from entering its territory,” and define this zone as a “killing zone,” and whoever enters it must know that he or she will be killed. By Israeli army fire.
He also called on the Israeli army to withdraw from the Gaza Strip to the international border, because the presence of tens of thousands of soldiers in the Strip will allow the remaining members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to wage a war of attrition against them, as was the case in the past in southern Lebanon, and Israeli army soldiers will be easy targets.
Because the Israeli army and the United States are aware of this, the Biden administration plans to train a special force of about 5,000 Palestinian security personnel affiliated with the Palestinian Authority. They will undergo counter-terrorism training in Egypt and Jordan, and after the Israeli army withdraws from the Strip, they will spread throughout the Strip to impose security.
According to the American plan, these forces are supposed to cooperate in security with the Israeli army, the United States, and what it described as moderate Arab countries, similar to the special security force established by American General Keith Dayton in the West Bank in 2005 after the election of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The writer quoted American sources as saying that before Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, the Palestinian Authority paid the salaries of 19,000 Palestinian security personnel in the Gaza Strip affiliated with the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), and it is possible to try to recruit a large portion of them again, as Biden He is not interested in ending the war in Gaza before reaching an agreement on a body that will manage the Strip and not harm Israel’s security.
Underground barrier
Israel is also looking for an effective way to prevent the smuggling of weapons from Egypt to the Gaza Strip, as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant proposed to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that the United States finance the construction of an underground barrier on the Egyptian side of the border in the Rafah area to prevent smuggling, but the Egyptians opposed. This, as a security source said that Egypt took many steps to destroy all these tunnels that linked it to Gaza and the methods that were taken to ensure this, and that these ideas were directed to the Israeli street for political purposes.
The writer said that in light of the Egyptian opposition, Israel will have no choice but to forcefully control the “Philadelphia Corridor” on the Palestinian side in Rafah to prevent weapons smuggling into Gaza.
He added that until these measures mature in practice, the Gaza Strip will face governmental and security chaos, as a new governance mechanism has not yet been agreed upon to replace Hamas, which has not yet been defeated, as the security forces of the Palestinian Authority have not yet undergone training in the war against terrorism.
According to the author, Hamas also threatens local elements such as tribal leaders and Fatah activists so that they do not integrate into the new government, and it is expected to challenge Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the United States.
Ben Menachem expected that security chaos would prevail in the Gaza Strip next year, which is why he prefers that the Israeli army not be part of it. After the overthrow of Hamas, it must establish reasonable defensive lines and establish a buffer zone along the Gaza border, in order to prevent what he called the madness of terrorist attacks on the Gaza Strip. Israel.