Israel-Hamas War: What happened on day 90?

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday presented his plan to the War Cabinet and the State Security Cabinet for Israel's security status once the war in Gaza is over. 

The plan included the integration of existing Palestinian civilian leadership in Gaza into a more substantial local government. "Hamas will not rule Gaza," said Gallant in a press briefing before the meeting, "and Israel will not hold a civilian governorship over Gaza."

While The Jerusalem Post previously reported that top defense officials want local Gazan Palestinians to run Gaza once the IDF starts to withdraw, this was only part of the picture, with the remainder of the picture involving the US, the EU, and moderate Sunni allies, it can now be revealed.

Essentially, the concept of the defense establishment, which includes Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, is that eventually, more and more civil administration should be handled by local Gazans without Hamas loyalties themselves, but that this will not be possible all at once.

In some undefined transitional period, the IDF will retain broad security responsibility, including over the borders and with authority to conduct raids, but some hybrid mix of forces provided by the US, European allies, and Arab allies, such as the Saudis, Egypt, the UAE and others will assist with aspects of internal security and administration.

Israeli soldiers in a tank hold an Israeli flag near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip (credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)

Only once the local Palestinian Gazans get their bearings, have more stable residences and lives, and appear ready to stand on their own if facing minor challenges from remnants of Hamas and other terror groups would the international conglomerate of countries yield more management to the local groups.

Palestinian Authority's role to be minimized

The defense establishment and Gallant also do not completely disqualify the Palestinian Authority from playing some role, though the defense minister would prefer to minimize its role or only give it a role if aspects of its policies toward Israel improve.

To date, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has avoided public debates on these issues and has mostly talked about what he is against: Such as no involvement for the PA.

However, the US, the EU, and the moderate Arab states may not agree to participate and provide funding, which could leave Israel stuck if Jerusalem does not show flexibility.

Further, Israel may be going to elections, in which case officials like Benny Gantz, who appear more open to the PA and to global suggested solutions in general, may end up deciding the issue.

It is also unclear how Israel will select Gazans who are truly disconnected from Hamas after the terror group's 16-year rule, but Gallant is confident that groups can be found or formed.

The United States plans to maintain a significant force presence in the Middle East, including warships with ballistic missile defense capability, some of which are in the Red Sea to deter Houthi attacks against cargo vessels, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.

“The United States does not seek conflict with any nation or actor in the Middle East, nor do we want to see the war between Israel and Hamas widen in the region,” Kirby said.

“But neither will we shrink from the task of defending ourselves, our interests, our partners, or the free flow of international commerce,” he said.

On Tuesday, he explained, US President Joe Biden spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. On Wednesday, the US, along with 12 other nations published a joint statement “condemning Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and reiterating that these attacks must cease immediately,” Kirby said.

The Galaxy Leader cargo ship is escorted by Houthi boats in the Red Sea in this photo released November 20, 2023. (credit: Houthi Military Media/Handout via REUTERS)

The signatories were Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Continuing presence in the Middle East

Kirby stressed that, “We have established and will continue to maintain a significant force presence in the Middle East,” including an aircraft carrier strike group centered around Dwight D. Eisenhower with 80 aircraft and an amphibious ready group led by an assault ship that was moved into the eastern Mediterranean, Kirby stated.

It did so as the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier group headed back to the US, Kirby added.

There are more than 4,000 sailors and marines and more than 50 aircraft in the eastern Mediterranean, Kirby said, adding that a number of the destroyers are designed for ballistic missile defense.

Kirby underscored US military prowess in the region amid heightened tensions that followed two explosions in Iran that killed more than 100 people and wounded scores, at a ceremony earlier on Wednesday to commemorate the US assassination of its top commander Qassem Soleimani. That followed a drone assassination of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut on Tuesday.

Kirby dismissed reports that Israel was behind the Iranian explosion and Arouri's assassination

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Israel is not holding talks with other countries about plans for the voluntary relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, an Israeli official said on Wednesday, underscoring that such an option was unfeasible.

“Israel is not negotiating with any country on voluntary emigration,” the official told reporters on Wednesday in response to comments by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionist Party and National Public Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, which made it appear that such an option was under consideration.

Currently, no known private initiatives

The official said he was unaware of any private initiatives about absorbing Palestinians into other countries, but that didn’t mean they were not occurring.

“We are not in the loop and have not heard about it,” he said. In that vein, he rejected reports about any plans to absorb Palestinians in the Congo.

Palestinians don’t want to voluntarily leave Gaza, and “no country wants to absorb two million people, not a million and not half a million,” he said.

Smotrich and Ben Gvir can discuss the relocation of Palestinians, but dramatically they can’t move on the issue, the official said.

UNRWA's role is expected to change

He spoke in advance of an anticipated discussion in the security-diplomatic cabinet on Thursday, which is slated to debate a "Day After Plan" for Gaza drafted by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and the National Security Council.

"Once it is presented, it will be published," the official said, explaining that one of the issues included in the plan will be the future involvement of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

At present, there is no other organization that is as effective at distributing humanitarian assistance but moving forward, other options are preferable, the official said.

At least two militia fighters were killed and five others wounded in a drone strike that targeted Iran-backed militia headquarters in eastern Baghdad on Thursday, police and security sources told Reuters.

The sources said they had no further detail regarding who might have carried out the strike.

At least two militia fighters were killed and five others wounded in a drone strike that targeted Iran-backed militia headquarters in eastern Baghdad on Thursday, police and security sources told Reuters.

The sources said they had no further detail regarding who might have carried out the strike.

New details about the assassination of Hamas's deputy head of the political bureau, Saleh al-Arouri, were published on Wednesday by Ynet.

"Israel fired six guided missiles, four exploded. Two of them destroyed two floors and directly hit the Hamas meeting room," a Lebanese security official said, according to Ynet. "Each missile weighed 100 kilograms."

Ynet reported that the official said the assassination of Arouri was carried out by an Israeli fighter jet - not by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)  as reported previously by Arab media outlets. According to the official, the deputy of Ismail Haniyeh was killed by "guided missiles" fired from an Israeli fighter jet in the Dahiyeh quarter in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

"These types of missiles are used by Israeli fighter jets," the security official claimed. Additionally, he mentioned that the Lebanese army found remnants of the missiles matching missiles previously fired by Israel in southern Lebanon.

The official Lebanese news agency, ANI, reported that the attack, the first of its kind in Beirut since the outbreak of the war, was carried out by a UAV, but the Lebanese security source, who was informed of the details in the initial investigation of the assassination contradicted this information.

Arouri was not only Hamas member killed

Along with Arouri, six other Hamas members, some of them senior, were killed in the attack on the offices of the terrorist organization in an area considered to be a Hezbollah stronghold in the Lebanese capital. This attack was also attributed to Israel.

Fire and smoke rises during an Israeli airstrikes in in Gaza City, on October 8, 2023 (credit: ATIA MOHAMMED/FLASH90)

Israel did not take responsibility for the attack, but IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Hagari said yesterday evening that the army is "prepared for any scenario." After the assassination, Hezbollah said that "the assassination will not go unpunished," and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati blamed Israel for the "desire to drag Lebanon into a new stage in the conflict."

Ynet reported that over 165 people have died in Lebanon since the outbreak of the war on October 7, most of them Hezbollah terrorists - but also more than 20 civilians, including three journalists. In Israel, nine soldiers and five civilians have died as a result of firing from the Lebanon border.

According to the military wing of Hamas, Arouri was the architect of the "Al-Aqsa Flood" - the name Hamas gave to the October 7 massacre. In the past, he served a 15-year sentence in Israeli prisons and was deported from the country after his release. He wandered through various Muslim countries until he arrived in Lebanon, where he was assassinated.

Arouri, 57, was reportedly the deputy to Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas' political bureau, and was responsible for the military activities of the terror organization in the West Bank. One of the attacks orchestrated under Arouri's command was the kidnapping and murder of the three teenagers - Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel, and Eyal Yifrah - in the summer of 2014, which led to the start of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. Following the teenagers' murder, Israel demolished Arouri's family home.

Approximately two months ago, the IDF demolished the home of Arouri. Afterward, they placed a sign with a half-Hamas, half-ISIS flag with the inscription "Hamas = ISIS" in Arabic on the ruins. Security forces seized control of his house and used it for about a week and a half until the commander of the Central Command, Yoav Mordechai, signed an order for its closure and demolition.

The house, in the town of Ara'rah near Ramallah, reportedly became a "military facility," according to Palestinian reports. A sign was hung on the front of the building depicting Arouri alongside an Israeli flag in the background, next to an inscription in Arabic, stating: "Here was the home of Saleh al-Arouri, demolished by the Shin Bet."

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, spoke at the UN Security Council on Wednesday regarding the Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

"The Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea are a precursor to the dark future expected for the region and the entire world if significant action is not taken against them urgently. The Ayatollah regime in Iran is the only factor that connects together all the perpetrators of destruction in the Middle East."

The discussion was initiated by the US following a series of attacks by the Houthis against ships carrying goods to the area.

"This is not an 'Israeli problem,' it is not even a 'Middle East problem.' This is a threat to the entire world. A complete closure of the Bab-el-Mandeb strait will cost the world economy 6 billion dollars every day.

Erdan: Houthis are a terrorist organization

"This council has already previously recognized the Houthis as a terrorist organization. Now is the time to impose sanctions on them and on those who finance or arm them. It is time to talk about the Shiite elephant in the room: the Ayatollah regime in Iran. They are the factor that connects and directs all the perpetrators of destruction.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan wears a yellow Star of David at the UN Security Council on October 30, 2023. (credit: SCREENSHOT VIA MAARIV)

"Iran is hiding while it is the one pulling the strings, arms, and finances its terrorist organizations. The Houthis, terrorists who belong to one of the poorest countries in the world, would never have obtained ballistic missiles and exploding drones without Iran and would not have had the ability to locate ships without receiving intelligence from Iran in real time.

"It's time to expose this to the world and take action. This could be the moment when the Council will respond to the real threat to the Middle East."

Four Hezbollah terrorists were killed on Thursday morning in an IDF strike in southern Lebanon, Walla reported, citing claims made by the terror organization.

Overall, the number of dead Hezbollah terrorists has risen to 147 since the beginning of Operation Swords of Iron.

It is not clear that Shiite Iran and Hezbollah will risk a big fight with Israel over the death of a Sunni official, Hamas Deputy Chief Saleh al-Arouri, a former top defense chief, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

The comment was made in the context of whether, if Israel was indeed responsible for Arouri’s death, it was a risky move to have taken while he was on Lebanese soil, which could start a general war with Hezbollah.

“If Hezbollah fires its large missiles, 1,000 to 3,000 per day, on the Israeli home front, Israel could hit Hezbollah hard. I am not sure they [Hezbollah] are in this spirit. Also, Iran may not want to lose control of its proxy in Lebanon [if it was hit by Israel] to take revenge for a Palestinian Sunni, who is not a Shi’ite,” even if he is connected to Hamas, which has sometimes acted as an Iranian proxy.

According to the official, although the Islamic Republic and Hamas do cooperate often, they have also had major differences, such as during the Syrian Civil War. Also, he said, the risks that Tehran and Beirut might take for each other might be more than what they would do for Sunni Palestinians, who are on the opposite side of the broader Middle East conflict between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.

The official added that the attack would not necessarily harm the possibility of a hostage deal in the long run.

Hamas leader Saleh Arouri speaks during a reconciliation deal signing ceremony in Cairo, Egypt, October 12, 2017. (credit: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

Arouri and Sinwar were not as close as other Hamas leaders

He said that Gaza Chief Yahya Sinwar has now outpaced the Hamas leadership outside of Gaza because of his October 7 success and because he is managing the current war on the ground, such that he can make or not make a deal even if they might disagree with him.

Furthermore, he said that Arouri and Sinwar were not as close as various other Hamas leaders.

Asked to discuss the considerations taken regarding such a major assassination, if Israel carried it out, he said that the prime minister must approve it and that typically, there are extensive meetings over time before a green light is finally given.

Such operations are viewed as extremely difficult because it is not enough to know where the target is at one specific time; it must also be known where the target is traveling, he said.

He said that such targeted killings do not always achieve the desired result but that they are one utensil in Israel’s toolbox for handling terrorists.

The official expressed hope that Israel will be able to take down other top Hamas leaders, such as Khaled Mashal, who narrowly avoided a Mossad assassination in 1997.

Former top Mossad officials have discussed with the Post instances when there were disagreements between the intelligence experts and the political leaders as to whom to assassinate, when to do it, and what the impacts would be – all of which have major strategic implications.

In the end, Mossad officials follow the orders of the prime minister, but there have been times when they talked a prime minister out of one course of action or another or when a prime minister denied a request for a targeted killing.

Top defense officials want to initially hand local management of Gaza over to clans who are traditionally connected to specific cities and sectors, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The idea would be to replace Hamas with family groups who have not been as connected to the terror group and to give control over food, water, and other key supplies to groups in Gaza who are not Hamas.

This will be challenging since Hamas has run Gaza for 16 years, and defense officials have not explained how they will be able to guarantee such a separation, but the tactic was used with some success in the US in Iraq and Afghanistan after the fall of regimes there.

Hamas has run Gaza with constant brutality cracking down on any group which tried to establish itself as a competitor on any level, sometimes killing and sometimes maiming opponents.

It is also unclear how this will operate given that almost all of northern Gaza's 1.4 million people evacuated to southern Gaza, and most of northern Gaza is expected to be uninhabitable for a period of years, some saying as long as five years.

A building destroyed by Air Force strikes in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, December 19, 2023 (credit: REUTERS)

US wants role for Palestinian Authority

Further, the US and the international community want a role for the Palestinian Authority, something which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted, even as his his current partner, but future main likely rival for the premiership, Benny Gantz, has kept open as an option.

Another possibility could be a mix of local clans, with the PA, and with other Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE involved all under some kind of UN umbrella.