BICOM

The US is working on a package to improve the situation in Gaza, before unveiling its long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.

The Washington Post has reported that the US team, led by Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt “came away from what had appeared to be a crucial trip to the region last month without breaking the impasse,” which has led them to consider options for a “Gaza first” strategy.

A Trump administration official told the newspaper: “We definitely have a Gaza focus right now because the situation is the way it is, and we want to try to help. But it’s not as though we think we need to fix Gaza first before we would air the peace plan.” One proposal reported recently is a sea port in Cyprus where goods would undergo a security inspection before being transferred to Gaza.

Speaking on the US plan, an Israeli official said: “It’s providing support to people in Gaza as a first stage. They know the Palestinians are not willing to consider [the larger proposal], so they are starting to put more attention on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.”

Arab diplomats told Israel Hayom that the US peace plan will focus on resolving the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip prior to dealing with the other final-status issues in the peace process.  PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said last month that he rejected a US-organised economic package for Gaza as an attempt by the Trump administration to divide Palestinians and reduce a political conflict with Israel to a purely humanitarian emergency.

In March, the White House held a rare conference on the humanitarian situation in Gaza between Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and Israel, among others. The PA decided not to attend the meeting as part of their boycott of the US administration after President Donald Trump’s Jerusalem announcement last December.

In January the 15-member Ad Hoc Liaison Committee discussed the severe humanitarian and economic challenges within Gaza, with Israel presenting a US$1bn plan to improve the situation in Gaza. The plan centred on Israeli assistance on major infrastructure projects, including improving Gaza’s desalination plants, electricity lines, gas pipelines, and upgrading the Erez industrial park on the Israeli border.