The Israeli military is about to take on the role of humanitarian workers and NGO volunteers. Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the army to prepare to take over the distribution of food aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip after the war, instead of international organizations.
The Prime Minister has thus taken another step towards an Israeli military administration of the Gaza Strip. The army chief of staff, General Herzi Halevi, opposes this scenario, explaining that the military’s vocation is not to distribute bags of flour.
But the head of government seems determined to ignore it. On Monday, during one of his rare press conferences, he alluded to this project by stating: “We must find an alternative for the distribution of food aid, we are working on it, we will succeed, it is part of the day after” the war. In other words, the army would replace in particular UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, as well as various NGOs active on the ground.
Denunciation campaign
The Israeli government has waged a campaign of denunciation of UNRWA, by far the largest employer in the Gaza Strip, since the beginning of the war. It accuses some of the agency’s employees of taking part in the massacres committed by Hamas on October 7 in southern Israel.
UNRWA conducted an internal investigation and last month dismissed nine of its employees “who may have been involved” in the bloody attack. But Benjamin Netanyahu wants the UN agency, considered “hostile,” to completely cease its activities in the Gaza Strip.
On the ground, a general has already been appointed to begin handling humanitarian aid files, as well as repairs to infrastructure damage caused by the fighting.
Partial reoccupation
For “Haaretz”, a left-wing opposition daily, the prime minister’s initiative is in line with his insistence on maintaining permanent military control of the 14 km border between the south of the Gaza Strip and Egypt in order to prevent arms trafficking through tunnels. The prime minister thus intends to gradually establish a military administration regime after the war, in the form of a partial reoccupation of the Gaza Strip. This region had been completely evacuated in 2005 by Israel, which had dismantled 21 colonies where some 8,000 Israelis resided.
Netanyahu also vetoed a takeover of Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, which controls part of the West Bank, by Hamas, as suggested by the United States and the Europeans.
Danger for soldiers
The prospect of a permanent military presence in the Gaza Strip, however, arouses strong opposition internally from the military, the first concerned. When questioned, an IDF spokesperson remained discreet, limiting himself to stating that “the army will implement the decisions taken by the political level”. On the other hand, General Halevi has openly taken a position against this project which would, according to him, endanger the lives of Israeli soldiers responsible for protecting convoys and then distributing aid, all missions that are not the responsibility of the army.
Furthermore, the military estimates, according to the business daily “Calcalist”, that the bill for implementing all this would amount to the equivalent of five billion euros per year. Furthermore, the deployment necessary for such humanitarian operations would require, due to a lack of sufficient personnel, not only extending compulsory military service by one year to four years, but also reserve periods which could be up to 100 days per year.
