In Gaza, Not All of Israel’s War Aims Have Been Achieved

The founding editor of the Times of Israel, David Horovitz, has looked at Israel’s original war aims in Gaza and finds that aside from the return of the hostages, living and dead, Israel’s goals have not been met. More on his assessment can be found here: “Hamas strengthens and the PA returns — this is no recipe for security and stability,” by David Horovitz, Times of Israel, February 4, 2026:

Israel went to war after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre with two essential goals: to get back the hostages, and to destroy Hamas and any other potential deadly threats to Israel. Among the subsequent conditions Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also vowed to impose was that there would be no role for the Palestinian Authority in a postwar Gaza unless the PA underwent radical reform.

With the return of all the hostages, living and dead, and the Trump administration’s declaration that we have now entered phase two of the US president’s broad Gaza peace plan, however, Hamas still rules half of Gaza, is targeting Israeli troops in the other half, and is not planning to disarm. And the PA, in more and less overt guises, is assuming a significant role during this fuzzy period of semi-war, semi-ceasefire. The Mahmoud Abbas-led PA, that, in a previous iteration, Hamas murderously and swiftly booted out of Gaza when seizing power there almost 20 years ago.

At President Donald Trump’s instruction, the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt has been reopened to limited entry and exit of people. And it is the PA, along with Egypt and European representation, that is managing the process — a fact that official Israel prefers not to acknowledge. (Israel, it should be stressed, is vetting and thus determining who is permitted to come in or go out, just not at the crossing itself.)

Furthermore, the main body formally delegated to oversee Gaza’s civil governance, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), is largely a Palestinian Authority entity. Its Gaza-born chief commissioner, Ali Shaath, is a former deputy minister in the PA. Several more of its members have held posts in the PA, including Sami Nasman, assigned the Interior portfolio, a senior figure in the PA’s General Intelligence Service. (Nasman fled Gaza over 30 years ago, wanted by the Shin Bet over the alleged killing of collaborators during the First Intifada, and came back at the time of Yasser Arafat’s return in 1994.)…

Ahead of its first days on the job, the NCAG this week cut through the diplomatic euphemisms and misnomers and changed its logo — from the original design of a bird in Palestinian colors to the PA’s very own eagle with flag symbol, merely switching the word “Palestine” to NCAG. A case of “in your face, Israel.”

What the symbol symbolizes, of course, is that the PA is back in Gaza. Back, that is, alongside, at odds with, and outmuscled by its sometime rival, ally and enemy Hamas….

This is not the Gaza that Israel, after indescribable cost in lost lives and in its global reputation, wanted and needs to see after the war.

But the story has not ended. Hamas adamantly refuses to disarm, as it is required to do so under the Trump plan for Gaza. The war by Israel against Hamas will, therefore, continue, one hopes with American approval and support, and eventually the IDF will grind it down, with the increasing help of the family- and clan-based militias in Gaza that have been taking on Hamas ever more aggressively.

As for the PA managing to infiltrate the planned postwar administration in Gaza, Netanyahu has continued to insist — most recently in his four-hour meeting with Steve Witkoff — that the PA is to be excluded from “governing the Strip in any way.” This insistence will not change, and it is up to the Americans to keep senior PA leaders from insinuating themselves into the administration that will be entrusted with governing Gaza. They can start by removing as the head of the main body formally delegated to oversee Gaza’s civil governance, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), Ali Shaath, who was formerly a deputy minister in the PA. And that should be followed up by removing other members of the NCAG who previously held posts in the PA, including Sami Nasman, who has now been assigned the Interior portfolio. Nasman has recently been a senior figure in the PA’s General Intelligence Service. Israel should draw its red line: no former member of the PA’s leadership should have any role in the governance of Gaza. Netanyahu has to insist on this, even more forcefully, before everyone gets used to the PA taking over the administration of Gaza, and Trump tries to force Israel to accept a fait accompli. Only thus can Israel attain its original war goals: Hamas disarmed, Gaza demilitarized, and no role for the PA in the government of Gaza.