US warns Israel of Gaza power vacuum, wants post-war plan: ‘we can’t have anarchy’
- The US, fearing mass casualties, tried to convince Israel not to attack Rafah. Israeli PM Netanyahu says it’s necessary to defeat the last of Hamas’s battalions
- Israel said it doesn’t want to occupy Gaza and suggested Arab countries can provide peacekeepers when the war ends. But no government said it will consider that
The US warned Israel it risks creating a power vacuum across swathes of Gaza and urged the country’s leaders to focus more on post-war planning for the Palestinian territory.
“We can’t have anarchy and a vacuum that’s likely to be filled by chaos,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Wednesday during a trip to Kyiv, Ukraine.
He spoke as Israeli forces battle in areas of northern Gaza – including the Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City – that were cleared of Hamas fighting units months ago, underscoring the group’s ability to reassemble. That’s led to some criticism of Israel’s tactics of rapidly moving troops out of areas when Hamas has been routed.
Part of the problem is that Israel lacks the manpower to hold and administer large parts of Gaza. The country of just under 10 million people mobilised a record 350,000 reservists soon after the war started in October – something that strained its economy. It released most of them late last year or in early 2024, leaving around 150,000 regular troops.
Israel’s slow-walk in Rafah opens door to full-on offensive
“You have to clear and hold,” former US General David Petraeus, who commanded armies in Iraq and Afghanistan, said at the Qatar Economic Forum. “If you don’t keep the enemy from reconstituting and keep it from getting back into the population, this is going to happen endlessly. You’ll just clear and have to re-clear and re-clear.”
