Without a major push by US to break impasse, yellow line looks set to become de facto border indefinitely dividing Gaza
MANAMA
A de facto partition of Gaza between an area controlled by Israel and another increasingly likely, multiple sources said, with efforts to advance US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war beyond a ceasefire faltering.
Six European officials with direct knowledge of the efforts to implement the next phase of the plan told Reuters it was effectively stalled and that reconstruction now appeared likely to be limited to the Israel-controlled area. That could lead to years of separation, they warned.
Under the first stage of the plan, which took effect on October 10, the Israeli military currently controls 53% of the Mediterranean territory, including much of its farmland, along with Rafah in the south, parts of Gaza City and other urban areas.
Nearly all Gaza’s two million people are crammed into tent camps and the rubble of shattered cities across the rest of Gaza.
Reuters drone footage shot in November shows cataclysmic destruction in the northeast of Gaza City after Israel’s final assault before the ceasefire, following months of prior bombardments. The area is now split between Israeli and Hamas control.
The next stage of the plan foresees Israel withdrawing further from the so-called yellow line agreed under Trump’s plan, alongside the establishment of a transitional authority to govern Gaza, the deployment of a multinational security force meant to take over from the Israeli military, the disarmament of Hamas and the start of reconstruction.
But the plan provides no timelines or mechanisms for implementation. Meanwhile, Hamas refuses to disarm, Israel rejects any involvement by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, and uncertainty persists over the multinational force.
“We’re still working out ideas,” Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi said at a Manama security conference this month. “Everybody wants this conflict over, all of us want the same endgame here. Question is, how do we make it work?”
Without a major push by the US to break the impasse, the yellow line looks set to become the de facto border indefinitely dividing Gaza, according to 18 sources, among them the six European officials and a former US official familiar with the talks.
The US has drafted a UN Security Council resolution that would grant the multinational force and a transitional governing body a two-year mandate. But ten diplomats said governments remain hesitant to commit troops.
European and Arab nations, in particular, were unlikely to participate if responsibilities extended beyond peacekeeping, and meant direct confrontation with Hamas or other Palestinian groups, they said.
