WASHINGTON: The United States and Israel have discussed the possibility of Washington leading a temporary post-conflict administration of Gaza, according to five people familiar with the matter, Reuters reports.
The “high-level” consultations have centred around a transitional government headed by a US official that would oversee Gaza until it had been demilitarised and stabilised, and a viable Palestinian administration had emerged, the sources said.
According to the discussions, which remain preliminary, there would be no fixed timeline for how long such a US-led administration would last, which would depend on the situation on the ground, the five sources said.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to discuss the talks publicly, compared the proposal to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq that Washington established in 2003, shortly after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Israel’s Gaza plan ‘dangerous moment’ for civilians: UN official
Meanwhile, the UN’s human rights chief told AFP that Israel’s plan for an expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip represented “a very dangerous moment” for civilians there.
“What we see is only more destruction, more hatred, more dehumanisation,” said Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, during a visit to Copenhagen for a UN meeting.
“It’s a very dangerous moment for civilians,” he added, criticising the Israeli plan for an expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip.
