With Gaza offensive looming, Arab nations pressure Hamas to ceasefire while US & Israel talk postwar administration

Israel and the United States have held discussions over the possibility of the U.S. setting up a provisional government in the Gaza Strip following the completion of Israeli military operations there, according to a report in Reuters.

The report said that the provisional government would remain in authority in Gaza until the enclave had been “demilitarized and stabilized, and a viable Palestinian administration had emerged.” 

The sources who spoke with Reuters said the authority would have “no fixed timeline,” with its duration dependent on the situation in the Strip. The sources also said that both the U.S. and Israel have discussed inviting other nations to participate in the governing authority, which would invite Palestinian technocrats with no known ties to militant groups like Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. 

Israeli officials have consistently rejected any Israeli role in governing the Gaza Strip after the war, while also insisting that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority has any role due to their support for terrorism against Israelis. 

In the meantime, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that several Arab countries are pushing Hamas to accept a hostage-ceasefire deal to avert Israel’s planned offensive in Gaza, which Israel has titled “Gideon's Chariots.”  

“There is now a lot of pressure, including from Jordan,” the official said. “The entire region is pressuring them for some sort of deal.” 

As part of the planned expanded Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operations in Gaza following U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to the region, Israeli officials have said that private American firms would handle the distribution of humanitarian aid in the newly created humanitarian zone expected to be established in Rafah. 

The decision to have humanitarian aid distributed by U.S. companies is related to the unwillingness of the IDF leadership to take on the task.

Like his predecessor, new IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir is resistant to calls for the military to oversee the distribution of aid, believing that with strained manpower resources, the military should focus only on the goals of defeating Hamas and returning the hostages. 

Zamir is also said to oppose any long-term military rule over the enclave. A senior reserve officer told Walla News, “Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir opposes the direct distribution of food by IDF soldiers. Over time, it's a process that involves military rule.” 

The Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday that the Trump administration has also been in talks with Arab countries in the region to help with the humanitarian distribution in the humanitarian zone. 

Israel's IDF Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Maj.-Gen. Ghassan Alian visited the Kingdom of Jordan earlier this week to discuss the subject of Israel’s expanded military operations in Gaza and the distribution of aid. 

Since the start of the war, Jordan has consistently provided aid supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza and helped establish a field hospital. 

It is not yet known if Jordan is one of the countries which the U.S. has engaged on the subject of aid distribution in Gaza. 

On Wednesday, the American NGO World Central Kitchen announced that it had ceased distribution of meals to Palestinian civilians in Gaza after its food stores ran out. Due to the Israeli blockade on aid entering the Strip, and the apparent Hamas seizure and control of several aid warehouses, the NGO said it no longer has the resources to feed Gazans in the enclave.

"After providing more than 130 million meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past eighteen months, WORLD Central Kitchen no longer has the necessary supplies to cook meals or make bread in Gaza," the organization said in a statement.

Israel has conditioned the resumption of aid entry into the Gaza Strip on the release of the hostages and the surrender of Hamas.

Meanwhile, Hamas is demanding a permanent ceasefire before agreeing to release the hostages.

“Hamas and the resistance factions insist on reaching a comprehensive agreement and a full package to end the war and aggression, along with a roadmap for the day after,” Bassem Naim, a member of the political bureau, told AFP (Agence France-Presse) on Wednesday.