Arab states want PA as rulers of post-war Gaza: Report
The US and its Arab allies say the PA should govern Gaza, while Israel wishes to occupy the strip directly, expel Palestinians, and establish Jewish settlements
Senior national security officials from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) held a secret meeting in Riyadh earlier this month to coordinate plans for Gaza after the war, including to install the PA in power there, three sources with knowledge of the meeting told Axios.
The meeting was hosted by Saudi Arabia's national security adviser, Musaed bin Mohammed al-Aiban, and included the director of the Palestinian General Intelligence Service, Majed Faraj, and his Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts, the sources said.
The US news outlet added that while the PA and its Arab allies are increasingly discussing plans for the day after the conflict ends, the Israeli government refuses to clarify its plans for Gaza if it achieves its goal of defeating Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes allowing the PA to have a role in Gaza but has not publicly proposed an alternative.
However, a document issued by Israel's Ministry of Intelligence in October recommended Israel occupy Gaza directly and transfer its 2.3 million inhabitants to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
Several Israeli cabinet ministers and members of the Knesset, including Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, attended the Return to Gaza Conference on 28 January to discuss building Jewish settlements in Gaza.
The White House has claimed it wants the PA to conduct reforms and have a role in governing post-war Gaza but has so far deferred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in all aspects of the war, including acquiescing to the killing of large numbers of Palestinian civilians.
At the meeting in Riyadh, Saudi, Egyptian and Jordanian security chiefs told Faraj the PA needs to conduct serious reforms, the sources said.
Saudi Arabia's national security adviser said at the meeting that the kingdom still wishes to normalize relations with Israel "in return for practical and irrevocable steps by Israel that would create a path towards a Palestinian state, even if such a state won't be established immediately," Axios said.
The 1993 Oslo Accords similarly established a framework for a Palestinian state to be established in the future. However, the Israeli leader at the time, Yitzhak Rabin, acknowledged that he never intended to allow a Palestinian state to be established. Instead, Israel accelerated Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank in the years after Oslo.