In recent weeks, government ministers have been squabbling over whether to discuss the future of the Gaza Strip "the day after" or postpone the discussion until the IDF completes its mission, defeats Hamas, destroys its military capabilities and topples its rule in Gaza.
This discussion cannot wait because it is not a theoretical question about the distant future. This assumes that Israel does not blink first but continues to fight Hamas until it is defeated. The "day after" has already arrived, and it is here – at least in the northern Gaza Strip, and first and foremost, in Gaza City.
About two weeks ago, the IDF Spokesperson said that "the dismantling of Hamas' military framework in the northern Gaza Strip has been completed" and that the IDF has almost complete operational control over this area. This achievement was the basis for the transition to the third phase of the war, announced by Defense Minister Yoav Galant. As part of this phase, the IDF will reduce the scope and intensity of its forces' activity in the northern Gaza Strip, and later, perhaps also in the central Gaza Strip and in the Khan Yunis area, after Hamas is also beaten there. The IDF will then move from a "phase of intensive maneuvering," which involves massive use of forces, to "special operations," mainly raids and patrols by small IDF forces, but without continuing to permanently hold most of the Gaza Strip. Indeed, journalists' reports operating in the northern Gaza Strip indicate that the IDF has withdrawn from most of the territory it has occupied inside Gaza City and the surrounding refugee camps, and that its forces have deployed along the coastal route in western Gaza and in the Netzarim corridor separating the northern and southern Gaza Strip.
This means that Gaza City and its environs, where some 200,<> residents still reside, remain in a kind of governmental vacuum filled by international organizations and UN aid agencies, headed by UNRWA. Moreover, under pressure from the United States, which famously demanded that Gazans who fled the northern Gaza Strip be allowed to return to their homes, Israel agreed to allow a UN delegation to tour the area in order to study the reality and needs and prepare a plan for the return of these Gazans to their homes.
But in real life there is no vacuum, and if no one fills the void in the northern Gaza Strip, Hamas will regain control of the territory – first of all to manage the lives of the residents, and then also to rehabilitate its terror infrastructure, even if only partially and limitedly. Therefore, anyone who thinks that the UN and the other international organizations will prevent such a "comeback" is mistaken, since some of them, first and foremost UNRWA, are nothing but collaborators of Hamas, who provide it, even if not explicitly and deliberately, with aid and cover, in a kind of division of roles, in which they take care of the needs of the population controlled by Hamas and from whose midst it operates. A similar division of labor exists in southern Lebanon, where UNIFIL has become Hezbollah's collaborator, giving it cover and legitimacy.
Israel must directly control all parts of the Gaza Strip it occupied, certainly for the foreseeable future, until the cause, if any, is found to which it can transfer responsibility for the Gaza Strip
For well-known, and obviously erroneous, reasons, Israel therefore refrains from directly controlling the northern Gaza Strip and from assuming responsibility for the lives of the population. The concept underlying this policy is based on the assumption that this will entail high financial costs, lead to friction with the local population and incessant terror that will exact a price from the IDF, and ultimately will also provoke international criticism of Israel.
But this is exactly the same concept that led us to October 7, a disaster whose economic costs and cost in human lives were ten times higher than the alternative of direct control of Gaza.
What Israel must do is directly control all parts of the Gaza Strip it occupied, certainly for the foreseeable future, until the cause, if any, is found to which it can transfer responsibility for the Strip. All Hamas collaborators, headed by UNRWA, must be removed from these areas and a military government should be established there, which alone will prevent a governmental vacuum that would mean the return of Hamas. The dilemma is clear: it is either us who will control the territory, or Hamas.
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