Israel Continues Planned For The Formation Of Armed Militia In Gaza Postwar

Israeli military land operations in Gaza. (Source: Israel Defense Forces)

JAKARTA - Israel continues its plans to form and arm local militias in the Gaza Strip, to maintain postwar rule in the region as well as rival the Hamas militant group, said a source familiar with this.

The source told The National News that Israel also wants militias to monitor the distribution of humanitarian aid to prevent Hamas fighters and loyalists from receiving the aid.

The source further said the more important thing was that the militias took over law enforcement duties in the Palestinian enclave after the war ended, replacing or adding existing police forces.

"This scheme is designed in part to push Gaza into a civil dispute, where Hamas and militias struggle to overcome it," said one source, as quoted March 28.

"This is a repeat of the competition between Palestinian factions, which have weakened the Palestinian people and prevented them from speaking in one voice," he continued.

The formation of militias to carry out daily affairs in Gaza, including domestic security concerns, could avoid Israel's direct involvement in the route.

It also allowed Israel to focus on securing its border with the region, preventing a repeat of the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, when the attack killed about 1,200 people and took about 240 people hostage as they returned to Gaza.

The attack was responded to by Israeli bombardment and ground operations in Gaza, which have so far killed some 32,490 Palestinians, displaced most of its 2.3 million population and created a severe humanitarian crisis.

Israel's plans face major challenges given the great support of Gazans to Hamas since coming to power there in 2007.

Israel has divided the Gaza Strip into a security zone, several sources said, as the beginning of the assignment of security tasks to proposed militias in each of the zones.

They said Israel was looking for a criminal group that, among other things, ran a smuggling network in Gaza to become the core of the proposed militia.

The group is a group that organizes and executes smuggling through a network of tunnels that are under the border with Egypt.

Israel's plan to continue the formation of militias in Gaza follows the resistance of tribal leaders there to Israel's plans to use them in the postwar government on the track.

The plan, which was reportedly made by Israel's internal security service Shin Bet, was never officially announced.

Earlier this month, a group representing ethnic groups and clans in Gaza said it was "not an alternative to any Palestinian political system".

The plan to form militias in Gaza also appears to be a substitute for "days" scenarios in Gaza's governance and security that have been put forward by its main ally and supporter, the United States, but rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

PM Netanyahu has repeatedly expressed his determination to destroy Hamas in Gaza, but also opposes the return of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority to the region. He also rejected proposals for Israeli forces to be fully withdrawn from Gaza, saying Israel would have an unlimited overall security role there.

It is known that the formation of local militias bound to Israel and carrying out Israeli orders was not without precedent. After the invasion of Lebanon in 1978, Israel turned the Lebanese military splinter group, mostly Christians, into militias called the South Lebanese Army, to help its troops oversee the border enclaves in southern Lebanon after they expelled Palestinian insurgents from the region.