Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid, has proposed, on Sunday, a plan to improve living conditions in Gaza in exchange for long-term quiet from the enclave’s Hamas Islamist leaders, aiming to solve the “never-ending violence” between Hamas and Israel as the two sides exchanged fire over the weekend.
The plan, which includes infrastructure and employment benefits, aims to show Palestinians in Gaza that Hamas’s campaign of violence against Israel is “why they live in conditions of poverty, scarcity, violence and high unemployment, without hope,” said Lapid on Sunday.
However he added that his plan is definitely not a calling for negotiations with Hamas, as “Israel doesn’t speak to terror organizations who want to destroy us,” Lapid stressed.
In the first stage of the plan, Lapid promised in a speech at the Reichman University in Herzliya. to upgrade the infrastructure in Gaza as it would receive electricity, water desalination plant, and gas, as well as significant improvements to the healthcare system and rebuilding of housing and transport infrastructure, will take place.
In exchange, Hamas will commit to long-term quiet within the involvement of international community, especially Egypt, in Gaza’s south.
“It won’t happen without the support and involvement of our Egyptian partners and without their ability to talk to everyone involved,” Lapid said.
After the first stage, Gaza would witness the construction of an artificial island off its coast that would allow the construction of a port, and a “transportation link” between Gaza and the West Bank would be created, according to Lapid.
Lapid warned that any breach by Hamas “will stop the process or set it back.”
The Israeli foreign minister said he had presented the plan to “partners in the Arab world,” as well as to the United States, Russia and the European Union.
“There is still work to do, we’re still on the drawing board, but if this plan has a chance to succeed and gains widespread support, I’ll propose it to the government as the official position,” he said.
Israel and Hamas fought their last full-scale war in May, the fourth since 2008. The conflict ended in an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.
Just hours after Lapid’s remarks, another round of violence started. The Israeli army said it had intercepted a rocket launched from Gaza towards southern Israel, the third such incident in as many days.
Overnight Monday, Israel returned the attack as its fighter jets striking four Hamas military compounds and a tunnel in the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli army said in a statement.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated, in late May, that Israeli airstrikes on the territory had resulted in “the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure.”
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