A government, security and tools to rebuild : NPR

TEL AVIV, Israel — A shaky ceasefire is holding in the Gaza Strip, yet no one can claim to be fully in charge of the shattered territory.

Gaza lacks a functioning government. Hamas is waging street battles with various Palestinian armed factions. Bulldozers and other construction equipment are desperately needed to clear all the rubble left by two years of war, but are in short supply.

And in the open fields outside Gaza’s cities and towns, Israeli troops are keeping watch. They hold just over half of Gaza’s territory and periodically open fire when the troops think Palestinians are coming too close to their positions.

Mkhaimar Abusada, a political science professor from Gaza, said the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire overseen by President Trump was welcomed by both Israelis and Palestinians.

But, he added, “the easy part has been done. The most complicated issues will be in the second stage of this Trump proposal, meaning the governance of Gaza, the demilitarization of Gaza and also rebuilding and reconstruction of Gaza.”

Abusada teaches at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, but left for Cairo shortly after the war began in October 2023. He wants to return home, but doesn’t think he’ll go back any time soon because the territory is so badly damaged.

The ceasefire plan vs. reality

The Hamas leadership inside Gaza was decimated by the war, and the ceasefire plan calls for a committee of Palestinian technocrats to run the territory on an interim basis.

Egypt says there’s now a list of 15 Palestinians who could serve on the committee, adding that the names have been approved by Hamas and Israel.

However, no names have been announced, it’s not clear when the committee would take over, or how much authority it would have to deal with health care, education, water, electricity and coordination with aid groups.

Hamas says it accepts the stipulation in the ceasefire deal that it won’t be part of a future government in Gaza, but it remains to be seen how this will play out in practice. Many government workers were supportive of Hamas before the war.

Hamas police on the streets

On the critical question of security, Hamas civilian police are already back on the streets. During the war, they had largely kept out of sight to avoid being targeted by Israeli strikes.

Police are handling routine tasks such as traffic duty. However, Hamas members have also waged deadly shootouts with Palestinian clans, which are essentially armed gangs.

In a widely circulated video on social media, Hamas accused eight Palestinian men of collaborating with Israel during the war. The accused were blindfolded and forced to kneel on a busy street. As a large crowd watched, Hamas gunmen executed the men with shots to the back of the head.

The summary executions raised the prospect that Hamas will reassert its authority and scare off any other group that challenges it.

Plan for new Palestinian police

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty says his country is training some 5,000 new Palestinian policemen for Gaza. The preparations have been taking place in Egypt in recent weeks, though it’s not clear when the new force would come to Gaza, and whether Hamas will accept this new authority.

The ceasefire also calls for Hamas to “decommission” its weapons. President Trump said Tuesday that, “If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them, and it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.”

Yet the Trump administration has also said it won’t send American troops to Gaza. The U.S. is sending 200 troops to Israel. But the mission is to help with planning, coordination and monitoring the ceasefire from a safe distance inside Israel, according to senior U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans.

The truce agreement calls also for an international stabilization force in Gaza, though no country has yet committed to sending troops to the territory. Any such mission would carry substantial risk if the troops are placed between Israel and Hamas.

The massive challenge of reconstruction

Ten bulldozers have started clearing rubble from main roads in Gaza, one small step in a reconstruction effort that will be measured in years, if not decades.

Gaza City Mayor Yahya al-Sarraj said this part of the cleanup effort was being financed by Qatar, a major donor to Gaza for years.

Trump says he expects wealthy Arab states to provide the rebuilding money — which would include Qatar as well as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The United Nations predicts the cost of reconstruction in the impoverished territory is a staggering $70 billion. An estimated 90% of the buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.

Israel and Hamas have clashed repeatedly over the past quarter-century, and parts of Gaza have been rebuilt multiple times. The reconstruction has been slowed due to the ongoing tensions.

Israel places tight restrictions on what goes into Gaza, and often limits or blocks supplies when it says it has information that Hamas is misusing the material.

A leading example is concrete, an essential ingredient for building homes. Yet Hamas used huge quantities of imported concrete to build a vast network of underground tunnels throughout Gaza. Israel insists this won’t happen again.

The rebuilding for the next six months will focus on several basics: removing debris, providing temporary housing, cash-for-work programs and reactivating the banking system.

Yet even these initial steps will require a working government, a sense of stability and enough cooperation with Israel so that building materials can flow into the territory on a regular basis.

NPR’s Anas Baba contributed to this report from Gaza.

For more reporting, analysis and different views of the conflict, go to npr.org/mideastupdates.