Netanyahu’s real strategy for Gaza

Here is the bottom line: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no intention of ordering an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, either before his country’s general election — likely to be held in October — or after. Conceding an inch from the roughly 70 percent of the territory his army currently occupies would be considered a weakness by most Israeli voters and would result in an open revolt within his extremist coalition.
He has made his intentions clear time and again. Recent statements by Israel’s political leadership have only reinforced that reality, with officials insisting that Tel Aviv must maintain indefinite military dominance over the Strip and explicitly rejecting any framework that requires a full withdrawal of troops. To Netanyahu, the military footprint in Gaza is a permanent fixture, not a temporary bargaining chip.
Some may argue that Netanyahu’s statements are merely political fodder aimed at prolonging his career and avoiding the disastrous outcomes awaiting him — in terms of state investigations and court trials — should he be ejected from power. However, his extremist policies, outlined throughout his entire career at the helm of Israeli politics, say otherwise. There has never been a period in Netanyahu’s history in which he showed a genuine willingness to compromise or engage in an authentic political process with the Palestinians.
This reduces the Washington-led Board of Peace and its subsequent administrative bodies to near irrelevance. These entities — including the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and a multinational International Stabilization Force — were supposedly assembled with the sole aim of managing a transitional phase, delivering humanitarian aid and deploying a peacekeeping buffer to facilitate a gradual Israeli military withdrawal.
It seems that two separate, irreconcilable tracks are taking shape. One is the Israeli track of continued war, entrenched military occupation and prolonged genocide. The other is an international track, firmly controlled by the US, aimed largely at finding alternative ways to manage Gaza on behalf of Israel.
Yet, even with its obvious limitations, the Gaza plan promises a phased Israeli military repositioning, a sustainable ceasefire, a massive influx of reconstruction aid and the gradual handover of civil administration to a nonfactional Palestinian authority. Little of that has been delivered. While the US and international envoys claim the ceasefire hinges on Hams’ disarmament, Israel has used the diplomatic deadlock to advance its troops further into the Strip. Aid remains choked at the borders and the promised reconstruction has not begun.
Indirect talks are ongoing in Cairo, though it seems that only Palestinians are being held accountable or are expected to make heavy concessions. Moreover, after 19 years of Hamas governing Gaza, the movement announced last week that it had officially dissolved the emergency committee that was administering the Strip. The movement declared its full readiness to transfer governance to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.
On paper, this suggests that a political transition is finally underway. In reality, no such transition is taking place.
Israel is preventing this technocratic government from assuming any real duties. Rather than facilitating a civil handover, the Israeli Cabinet has dismissed the transition. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar labeled the move a “trick,” arguing that a technocratic administration would merely be responsible for municipal tasks like garbage collection, while allowing resistance networks to persist.
Instead, Israel’s military strategy continues to fuel conditions that undermine any possibility of stabilizing the devastated Strip. Its objective is not merely to reject an alternative Palestinian administration but to ensure that no functioning Palestinian governing authority can emerge at all. By doing so, Tel Aviv wants to create a permanent governance vacuum, sowing further chaos and fragmentation.
If no alternative Palestinian political body is permitted to stabilize Gaza, the default collapse will inevitably force local factions to reassert control over daily survival, thus giving Israel the continued pretense to exact more punishment on a helpless population.
Following Hamas’ political move, Israel responded with its standard currency: immediate violence. This was starkly illustrated last Thursday, when Israeli forces carried out a targeted airstrike on a vehicle in Gaza City in a failed attempt to assassinate Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem. This attack sent a clear message that Israel has no intention of respecting political transformations or ceasefires.

There has never been a period in Netanyahu’s history in which he showed a genuine willingness to compromise.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud

While no houses are being built, no schools are being constructed and no hospitals are being revived, the only numbers that keep growing are those of the dead and wounded. The human cost has reached unfathomable proportions: the Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 73,000, with the number of wounded exceeding 173,200. Tragically, these numbers continue to climb daily: more than 1,098 Palestinians have been killed since the so-called ceasefire framework was initially agreed, proving that the truce exists only in media rhetoric, not on the ground.
This leaves us with a single, inescapable conclusion: the political track aimed at reconstructing Gaza and ending the Israeli military presence has little bearing on the grim realities unfolding on the ground.
The only way out is a stronger, more independent international will that wrestles the future of Gaza from the grip of Netanyahu, translating political agreements into immediate humanitarian outcomes and a definitive end to the Israeli occupation.
Until Israel is compelled to relinquish its military control over Gaza, every new committee, reconstruction mechanism or diplomatic initiative risks becoming little more than political theater.

• Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the editor of The Palestine Chronicle. His latest book, “Before the Flood,” was published by Seven Stories Press. His website is ramzybaroud.net. X: @RamzyBaroud