What Could Israel’s Security Control Over Gaza Look Like?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged there will be total Israeli security control over the Gaza Strip after Hamas is wiped out. He said that the security measures will include full-scale demilitarization so that there can be no threat to Israeli citizens from Gaza anymore.

Netanyahu added that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) "will continue to hold the Gaza Strip even after the war because the Jewish state will not rely on international forces" in terms of providing security in the Palestinian enclave.

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Still, "what we may see [in Gaza] is some sort of a regional framework, which will include major Arab states like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Egypt," Avi Melamed argued.

"I would assume that Israel will take care of that part of maintaining the security, because we have to remember that there are a lot of things that should be done. These include rehabilitation and repopulating Gaza citizens back to their homes or finding solutions for those who cannot go back to their homes because they have been demolished, as well as providing governmental services and all those things," Melamed said.

He suggested that Israel will be focused on "the whole issue of security," with the IDF continuing to "diminish Hamas and Islamic Jihad military capacities and to make sure they will not be able to regroup themselves and rebuild the infrastructure."

When asked who will take care of the civilians who need help within Gaza, Melamed said that the issue "has to be addressed regionally and internationally," because "it's not Israel's responsibility" alone.

"This is something that Israel can be part of," he said, referring to today’s Islamic-Arab summit in Riyad, where participants could discuss taking care of "their brothers, the Palestinians."

On Israel’s security measures, the analyst said that they should be aimed at preventing Hamas from continuing to be "a player that could dictate its agenda in the region as well as with respect to the Israelis and the Palestinians." According to Melamed, the security measures should include "restrictions" to defend Gaza civilians and “make sure that they will not get harmed."

He stressed that minimizing "the damage and the threat to the civilians in that situation" is a significant thing, which will be "one aspect of the relationship between Israel and Gaza population in the context of the security measurement."

Touching upon steps to tackle Hamas, Melamed said that "it has to be done in different ways through exerting military pressure, as well as suffocating Hamas' economic capacities, and pursuing the group’s militants and commanders in many other ways."

"There should be, as I said before, an international and regional framework that will address the whole situation in the Gaza Strip. And as part of that, there should be a very decisive, proactive action to make sure that Hamas will not be able to become yet again a relevant player," the analyst concluded.

He spoke as the latest escalation of the Palestine-Israel conflict, which occurred after the October 7 surprise large-scale Hamas attack on the Jewish state from Gaza, shows no signs of coming to a halt. More than 11,000 Palestinians have already been killed in the Israeli retaliation bombardment of Gaza, according to the Palestinian enclave’s Health Ministry. Israel’s death toll stands at about 1,600, per official figures provided by Tel Aviv.