<\/p>\n
NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) \u2014 Israel\u2019s government is objecting to the\u00a0White House announcement\u00a0of\u00a0leaders who will play a role\u00a0in overseeing next steps in\u00a0Gaza\u00a0as the ceasefire moves into its\u00a0challenging second phase.<\/p>\n
The rare criticism from Israel of its close ally in Washington said the Gaza executive committee \u201cwas not coordinated with Israel and is contrary to its policy,\u201d without details. Saturday’s statement also said\u00a0Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u00a0has told the foreign ministry to contact\u00a0Secretary of State Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n
The committee announced by the White House on Friday includes no Israeli official but has an Israeli businessman, billionaire Yakir Gabay. Other members announced so far include two of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s closest confidants, a former British prime minister, a U.S. general and representatives of several Middle Eastern governments.<\/p>\n
The White House has said the executive committee will carry out the\u00a0vision of a Trump-led \u201cBoard of Peace,\u201d\u00a0whose members have not yet been named. The White House also announced the members of a new Palestinian committee to run Gaza\u2019s day to day affairs, with oversight from the executive committee. The Palestinian committee met for the first time on Thursday in Cairo.<\/p>\n
The executive committee\u2019s members include Rubio, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga and Trump\u2019s Deputy National Security Adviser Robert Gabriel.<\/p>\n
Committee members also include a diplomat from Qatar, an intelligence chief from Egypt and Turkey\u2019s foreign minister \u2014 all countries have been ceasefire mediators \u2014 as well as a Cabinet minister for the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
Turkey has a strained relationship with Israel but good relations with Hamas and could play an important role in persuading the group to yield power and disarm. Hamas has said it will dissolve its government in Gaza once the new Palestinian committee takes office, but it has shown no sign that it will dismantle its military wing or security forces.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu’s office didn’t respond Saturday to questions about its objections regarding the executive committee.<\/p>\n
Minutes after its statement, Israel\u2019s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in a statement backed Netanyahu and urged him to order the military to prepare to return to war. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, another far-right Netanyahu ally, said on social media that \u201cthe countries that kept Hamas alive cannot be the ones that replace it.”<\/p>\n
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Gaza\u2019s second-largest militant group after Hamas, in a statement Saturday also expressed dissatisfaction with the makeup of the Gaza executive committee and claimed it reflected Israeli \u201cspecifications.\u201d<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Trump administration on Wednesday\u00a0said the U.S.-drafted ceasefire plan for Gaza was now moving into its second phase, which includes the new Palestinian committee in Gaza, deployment of an international security force, disarmament of Hamas and reconstruction of the war-battered territory.<\/p>\n
The last hostage,\u00a0Ran Gvili\u00a0in Gaza, was killed during the attack that sparked the war. On Saturday his parents, Talik and Itzik Gvili, said in a statement they were \u201cdeeply concerned by moves toward the rehabilitation of Gaza\u201d while Hamas had not fulfilled its obligation to return everyone.<\/p>\n
The ceasefire in the deadliest war ever fought between Israel and Hamas took effect on Oct. 10. The first phase focused on the return of all remaining hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian detainees, along with a surge in humanitarian aid and a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces in Gaza.<\/p>\n
The war began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took over 250 hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 71,400 Palestinians, including over 460 since this ceasefire began, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.<\/p>\n
The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NAHARIYA, Israel (AP) \u2014 Israel\u2019s government is objecting to the\u00a0White House announcement\u00a0of\u00a0leaders who will play a role\u00a0in overseeing next steps in\u00a0Gaza\u00a0as the ceasefire moves into its\u00a0challenging second phase. The rare criticism from Israel of its close ally in Washington said the Gaza executive committee \u201cwas not coordinated with Israel and is contrary to its policy,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[5238,797,168,250,5237,5239,1281],"class_list":["post-16744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-announcement","tag-gaza","tag-israel","tag-leaders","tag-objects","tag-oversee","tag-steps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}