US, Israel discuss US heading temporary postwar administration of Gaza, say sources

The United States and Israel have discussed the possibility of Washington leading a temporary postwar administration of Gaza, according to five people familiar with the matter.

The “high-level” consultations have centered around a transitional government headed by a US official that would oversee Gaza until it has been demilitarized and stabilized, and a viable Palestinian administration had emerged, the sources say.

According to the discussions, which remain preliminary, there would be no fixed timeline for how long such a US-led administration would last, and it would depend on the situation on the ground, the five sources say.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the talks publicly, compare the proposal to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq that Washington established in 2003, shortly after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The authority was perceived by many Iraqis as an occupying force and it transferred power to an interim Iraqi government in 2004 after failing to contain a growing insurgency.

Other countries would be invited to take part in the US-led authority in Gaza, the sources say, without identifying which ones. They say the administration would draw on Palestinian technocrats but would exclude Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.