By World Israel News Staff
Israel and Hamas have agreed to have the postwar Gaza Strip administered by a technocratic committee of Palestinians, in keeping with the US-backed Gaza peace plan, Egypt said.
On Monday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told The Associated Press that a committee of 15 Palestinians has already been assembled to take over the day-to-day administration of the Gaza Strip.
Israel, Abdelatty said, has already signed on to the arrangement.
In addition, the Egyptian foreign minister said, Israel has already vetted and approved the 15 committee members selected.
Hamas and all other Palestinian factions, including the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, have also signed off on the 15 technocrats tapped for the committee, Abdelatty said.
He did not name any of the committee members, however.
Abdelatty called for the committee to be empowered to govern Gaza as quickly as possible, speaking after the ceasefire began and on the same day that the 20 living Israeli hostages returned.
“We need to deploy them to take care of the daily life of the people in Gaza, and the Board of Peace should support and supervise the flow of finance and money, which will come for the reconstruction of Gaza.”
Abdelatty’s comments came ahead of the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, which featured President Donald Trump.
Hamas has responded enthusiastically to the Trump plan, Abdelatty claimed, amid reports the terror group is not willing to implement key terms of the deal, including the disarming of Gaza terror groups, the destruction of all terror infrastructure, and the handing over of control to the civilian committee, operating under the auspices of a yet-to-be established “Board of Peace.”
However, Abdelatty claimed Hamas has accepted that the group will have “no role in the transitional period.”
“They are committed to that. That is why they are working on an administrative Palestinian committee to be deployed in order to take care of the daily life of the people of Gaza.”
