From the Liveblog of
Saturday, March 29, 2025
June 2023 Defense Ministry document proposed near-sovereignty for Hamas – report
The Defense Ministry unit that oversees the Gaza Strip produced a document four months before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre recommending a potential long-term truce (hudna) with the terror group in Gaza, under which Israel would recognize Hamas rule and grant it something akin to sovereignty, an Israeli TV report says.
The top secret document, entitled: “Program for ‘Long-Term Truce’ in the Strip,” was written by Major General Ghassan Alian, the head of COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories), and was distributed to senior security officials on June 11, 2023, Channel 12 says. It was discussed at a consultation hosted by then IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi the next day, and Halevi’s recommendation was that the idea should be advanced with the goal of “taking the Gaza Strip in a better direction.”
The potential for establishing a long-term truce with Hamas was still considered viable days before the Hamas invasion, the TV report also says, claiming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then defense minister Yoav Gallant sent a delegation from COGAT and the Shin Bet to Cairo 10 days before the massacre to see if it was possible to advance such a truce and protracted stability with Hamas.
The truce proposal set out in Alian’s June 11, 2023, document was initiated by Egypt, Channel 12 says. Israel’s efforts to advance it, the TV report says, underline the degree to which it was duped by Hamas into thinking that the terror group was seeking long-term calm and sovereignty in Gaza even as it made meticulous preparations for the October 7 invasion and slaughter.
In response to the TV report, COGAT tells the TV station that Alian’s document “presented an Egyptian proposal from June 2023, and not an Israeli initiative.” It says the discussions on it “were held in accordance with the policy of the political leadership.”
Gallant, in response, reiterates his demand for a state commission of inquiry covering at least the past decade, in which he, too, would be questioned.
The Shin Bet, IDF and Netanyahu’s office did not respond to questions, the TV report says.
The Times of Israel Community.