US Seeking Israeli Help in Retaining Palestinian Authority for Post-War Gaza - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The United States has been trying to persuade Israel to help it keep the Palestinian Authority afloat so that it could take over control of Gaza after the invasion is over, American press reported Monday, citing US and Palestinian officials.

Israel blocked $140 million in Palestinian tax money in response to Hamas' surprise attack on October 7, preventing the embattled Palestinian Authority from paying salaries to its staff and soldiers guarding President Mahmoud Abbas' compound in Ramallah, the newspaper reported.

US officials have been busy visiting the walled compound in recent weeks as the White House pushes for the formation of a new Palestinian administration and the training of its security forces, but Israel's hardline finance minister has vowed that "not one shekel" will be paid to the Palestinian Authority, a long-time rival of Gaza-based Hamas.

Palestinian Authority Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Abu Rudeineh told the newspaper that, even if the Palestinian government signed up to Washington's "day after" plan it would not be implemented because Israel was bent on weakening the Palestinian Authority. Other Palestinian officials quizzed by the Post said they were concerned over lack of a clear "political horizon" for Palestinian statehood.

Sabri Saidam, an adviser to Abbas and member of the central committee for the Fatah party, told the newspaper that not everyone in Ramallah was happy about the US role in deciding the future of the Palestinian Authority.

"It's always this colonizing mentality, whereby, 'We decide your leadership, we are the ones basically designing your strategy for the day after, we tell you how to live, we tell you how to breathe, and we tell you how to run your land,'" he said.

On October 7, Palestinian movement Hamas fired rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip, while its fighters breached the border, attacking both civilian neighborhoods and military bases. As a result, over 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza and started a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages. Over 20,400 people have been killed so far in Gaza as a result of Israeli strikes, local authorities said.

On November 24, Qatar mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas on a temporary truce and the exchange of some of the prisoners and hostages, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. The ceasefire was extended several times and expired on December 1. Over 100 hostages are still being held captive in the Gaza Strip by Hamas, according to Israel.