WASHINGTON: The United States and other countries are looking at “a variety of possible permutations” for the future of the Gaza Strip if Hamas militants are removed from control, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.
Blinken told a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing the status quo of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas being in charge of the densely populated enclave could not continue, but Israel did not want to run Gaza either.
Between those two positions were “a variety of possible permutations that we’re looking at very closely now, as are other countries,” Blinken said.
What would make most sense at some point, Blinken said, was an “effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority” to have governance over Gaza, but it was a question whether that can be achieved.
“And if you can’t, then there are other temporary arrangements that may involve a number of other countries in the region. It may involve international agencies that would help provide for both security and governance,” Blinken said.
In retaliation to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, the worst assault on Jews since the Holocaust, Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas in a relentless onslaught in the Gaza Strip, however it does not appear to have an obvious endgame in sight.
On Tuesday, Palestinian health officials said at least 50 Palestinians were killed when Israeli air strikes hit a densely populated refugee camp in north Gaza.
UN and other aid officials said civilians in the besieged Palestinian enclave were engulfed by a public health catastrophe, with hospitals struggling to treat casualties as electricity supplies petered out.
Washington has been speaking with Israel, as well as other countries in the region on how to govern the Palestinian enclave if Israel triumphed on the battlefield, but a clear plan was yet to emerge.
Among the options that are being explored by the United States and Israel was the possibility of a multinational force that may involve US troops, or Gaza be placed under United Nations oversight temporarily, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
Some of US President Joe Biden’s aides are concerned that while Israel may craft an effective plan to inflict lasting damage to Hamas, it has yet to formulate an exit strategy.
“We have had very preliminary talks about what the future of Gaza might look like,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a briefing. “I expect that it will be the subject of a good bit of diplomatic engagement moving forward,” he added.

BEIRUT: Lebanon on Tuesday accused Israel of white phosphorus attacks that it said it would file a complaint to the UN over, with a minister alleging the incendiary weapon had burned 40,000 olive trees.
Rights groups and Lebanese officials have repeatedly accused Israel of using the weapon, which can cause serious burns if it hits people — allegations Israel had previously denied.
“I instructed the Lebanese mission to the UN to submit a new complaint to the Security Council to condemn Israel’s use of white phosphorus in repeated attacks on Lebanon,” Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said.
In a statement, Bou Habib also accused Israel of “deliberately burning Lebanese groves and forests.”
Since Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, Lebanon’s southern border has seen tit-for-tat exchanges between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.
The skirmishes have killed at least 62 people in Lebanon according to an AFP tally, mostly Hezbollah combatants but also four civilians, including a Reuters journalist.
Israel said eight people were killed, including soldiers and civilians.
Israeli attacks have also set olive groves and greenery ablaze in the border area, with at least one fire still raging in Lebanon’s south on Tuesday.
Agriculture Minister Abbas Al Hajj Hassan said Israeli white phosphorus strikes burnt down 40,000 olive trees in Lebanon’s south.
His ministry found in a preliminary survey that “128 fires resulted from the Israeli enemy’s phosphorus bombing of our regions,” he told AFP.
Phosphorus, a substance that catches fire on contact with the air, is used to create smokescreens to hide troop movements, illuminate the battlefield or destroy buildings by fire.
It falls under the 1983 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which restricts incendiary weapons without banning their use altogether.
While the convention outlaws their use against civilians and non-military targets as well as their deployment against military targets near civilians, it does not cover deployment for smokescreening or battlefield illumination.
Earlier Tuesday, Amnesty International released an investigation saying it had “evidence of Israel’s unlawful use of white phosphorus” in south Lebanon between October 10 and 16.
“One attack on the town of Dhayra on 16 October must be investigated as a war crime because it was an indiscriminate attack that injured at least nine civilians... and was therefore unlawful,” the group added.
Human Rights Watch also accused Israel of using white phosphorus in Gaza and Lebanon earlier this month — which Israel denied.