US, others exploring options for future of Gaza after Hamas — Blinken

The United States and other countries are looking at "a variety of possible permutations" for the future of Gaza if Hamas that governs the Palestinian enclave is removed from power, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

Blinken told a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday that the status quo of Palestinian resistance group Hamas being in charge of the densely populated enclave could not continue, but Israel did not want to run Gaza either.

Between those two positions were "a variety of possible permutations that we're looking at very closely now, as are other countries," Blinken said.

What would make most sense at some point, Blinken said, was an "effective and revitalised Palestinian Authority" to have governance over Gaza, but it was a question whether that can be achieved.

"And if you can't, then there are other temporary arrangements that may involve a number of other countries in the region. It may involve international agencies that would help provide for both security and governance," Blinken said.

Protesters with hands covered in red paint repeatedly interrupted the hearing, demanding Washington stop funding Israel's war on Gaza.

The current conflict in besiege Gaza, under Israeli bombardment and blockade since October 7, began when Hamas initiated Operation Al Aqsa Flood, a multi-pronged surprise attack that included a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel by land, sea, and air.

Hamas said the incursion, during which it also grabbed 240 hostages, was in retaliation for the storming of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the daily violence by illegal Israeli settlers. Israel claims some 1,400 people were killed in the raid.

Israel has since then bombarded the enclave, home to 2.3 million people, and also sent tanks and artilleries, killing more than 8,500 Palestinians, including 3,500 children.

Refugee camp massacre

On Tuesday, Palestinian officials said around 400 Palestinians were killed or wounded when Israeli air strikes hit a densely populated refugee camp in northern Gaza.

UN and other aid officials said civilians in the besieged Palestinian enclave were engulfed by a public health catastrophe, with hospitals struggling to treat casualties as electricity supplies petered out.

Washington has been speaking with Israel, as well as other countries in the region, on how to govern the Palestinian enclave if Israel triumphed on the battlefield, but a clear plan was yet to emerge.

Among the options that are being explored by the United States and Israel was the possibility of a multinational force that may involve US troops, or Gaza be placed under United Nations oversight temporarily, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

In response to the report, the White House said sending US troops to Gaza as part of a peacekeeping force is not something being considered or under discussion.

Some of US President Joe Biden's aides are concerned that while Israel may craft an effective plan to inflict lasting damage to Hamas, it has yet to formulate an exit strategy.

"We have had very preliminary talks about what the future of Gaza might look like," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a briefing. "I expect that it will be the subject of a good bit of diplomatic engagement moving forward," he added.

Israel's 'concept paper' suggests expulsion of Palestinians

An Israeli government ministry has drafted a wartime proposal to transfer 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza to Egypt's Sinai peninsula, drawing condemnation from Palestine and worsening tensions with Cairo.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office played down the report compiled by the Intelligence Ministry as a hypothetical exercise — a "concept paper."

But its conclusions deepened long-standing Egyptian concerns that Israel wants to make Gaza into Egypt's problem, and revived for Palestinians memories of their greatest trauma — the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of people who fled or were forced from their homes during the fighting surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.

The document proposes moving Palestinian population in Gaza to tent cities in northern Sinai of Egypt, then building permanent cities and an undefined humanitarian corridor.

A security zone would be established inside Israel to block the displaced Palestinians from entering. The report did not say what would become of Gaza once its population is cleared out.

Egypt governed Gaza between 1948 and 1967, when Israel occupied the territory, along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The vast majority of Gaza's population are the descendants of Palestinian refugees uprooted from Israel's occupation.

Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah el Sisi, has said a mass influx of refugees from Gaza would eliminate the Palestinian cause, warning that such a move would drag Cairo into a war with Israel.