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Israeli Ministry, in ‘Concept Paper,’ Proposes Transferring Gaza Civilians to Egypt’s Sinai 

People stand behind the metal mesh that covered the window of a building that was hit by Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 31, 2023 amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
People stand behind the metal mesh that covered the window of a building that was hit by Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 31, 2023 amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Israeli Ministry, in ‘Concept Paper,’ Proposes Transferring Gaza Civilians to Egypt’s Sinai 

People stand behind the metal mesh that covered the window of a building that was hit by Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 31, 2023 amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
People stand behind the metal mesh that covered the window of a building that was hit by Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 31, 2023 amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)

An Israeli government ministry has drafted a wartime proposal to transfer the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million people to Egypt's Sinai peninsula, drawing condemnation from the Palestinians and worsening tensions with Cairo.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office played down the report compiled by the Intelligence Ministry as a hypothetical exercise — a “concept paper.” But its conclusions revived for Palestinians memories of their greatest trauma — the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of people who fled or were forced from their homes during the fighting surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.

“We are against transfer to any place, in any form, and we consider it a red line that we will not allow to be crossed,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said of the report. “What happened in 1948 will not be allowed to happen again."

A mass displacement, Abu Rudeineh said, would be “tantamount to declaring a new war.”

So far more than 8,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of them civilians, have been killed since Israel went to war against Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack.

The document is dated Oct. 13, six days after Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel and took over 240 hostage in an attack that provoked a devastating Israeli war in Gaza. It was first published by Sicha Mekomit, a local news site.

In its report, the Intelligence Ministry — a junior ministry that conducts research but does not set policy — offered three alternatives “to effect a significant change in the civilian reality in the Gaza Strip in light of the Hamas crimes that led to the Sword of Iron war.”

The document’s authors deem this alternative to be the most desirable for Israel’s security.

The document proposes moving Gaza’s civilian population to tent cities in northern Sinai, then building permanent cities and an undefined humanitarian corridor. A security zone would be established inside Israel to block the displaced Palestinians from entering. The report did not say what would become of Gaza once its population is cleared out.

At first glance, this proposal “is liable to be complicated in terms of international legitimacy,” the document acknowledges. “In our assessment, fighting after the population is evacuated would lead to fewer civilian casualties compared to what could be expected if the population were to remain.”

Egypt's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has said a mass influx of refugees from Gaza would eliminate the Palestinian nationalist cause. It would also risk bringing militants into Sinai, where they might launch attacks on Israel, he said.

An Israeli official familiar with the document said it isn't binding and that there was no substantive discussion of it with security officials. Netanyahu’s office called it a “concept paper, the likes of which are prepared at all levels of the government and its security agencies.”

“The issue of the ‘day after’ has not been discussed in any official forum in Israel, which is focused at this time on destroying the governing and military capabilities of Hamas,” the prime minister’s office said.

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Arab World

Arms Smuggling Attempt Foiled on Syria-Lebanon Border

Border guards in outskirts of Flita, west of Damascus, foil arms smuggling attempt on Syria-Lebanon border (SANA)
Border guards in outskirts of Flita, west of Damascus, foil arms smuggling attempt on Syria-Lebanon border (SANA)
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Arms Smuggling Attempt Foiled on Syria-Lebanon Border

Border guards in outskirts of Flita, west of Damascus, foil arms smuggling attempt on Syria-Lebanon border (SANA)
Border guards in outskirts of Flita, west of Damascus, foil arms smuggling attempt on Syria-Lebanon border (SANA)

Syria’s defense ministry said border guard forces in the outskirts of Flita area west of Damascus had foiled an attempt to smuggle weapons across the Syrian-Lebanese border after what it described as a tightly executed ambush.

The ministry’s media and communications office said the operation led to the arrest of four people, including two Lebanese nationals, and the seizure of a quantity of weapons and ammunition.

It said the suspects had been referred to the relevant authorities for legal action.

The operation came amid growing tension and anxiety along the Syrian-Lebanese frontier after the Syrian army reinforced its deployment on the border with Lebanon, reviving memories of the Syrian military’s intervention in Lebanon in the 1970s.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji said in a post on X that, on the sidelines of an emergency consultative meeting held in Riyadh, he had a brief conversation with his Syrian counterpart Asaad al-Shibani, who told him the deployment of Syrian forces on the border with Lebanon was aimed solely at protecting Syrian territory and securing the frontier against any security breach or smuggling activity.

Shibani stressed that Syria did not intend to enter Lebanon or interfere in its internal affairs in any way.

Syria’s border guard forces continue to work to secure the frontier and combat armed groups, drug and weapons smuggling, and other illegal activities that exploit security conditions in some border areas. They are also working to regulate movement along the border and monitor any activity that poses a security threat.

Earlier this month, the Rif Dimashq Media Directorate announced the seizure of a shipment of weapons prepared for smuggling across the Syrian-Lebanese border.

It said the shipment was found in the Nabek area of the Qalamoun region in the Damascus countryside and that the operation was part of efforts to combat organized crime and crack down on smuggling.

The Internal Security Directorate in the Zabadani area of Rif Dimashq also said it had foiled an attempt on Dec. 17 to smuggle a shipment of weapons into Lebanon.

 

Arab World

Israel Targets Hezbollah-Linked Financial Interests

A man walks amid the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Beirut’s Zokak el-Blat district near the city center (Reuters)
A man walks amid the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Beirut’s Zokak el-Blat district near the city center (Reuters)
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Israel Targets Hezbollah-Linked Financial Interests

A man walks amid the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Beirut’s Zokak el-Blat district near the city center (Reuters)
A man walks amid the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Beirut’s Zokak el-Blat district near the city center (Reuters)

Israel has stepped up its operations against Hezbollah in recent days, escalating on multiple fronts in response to the group’s intensified attacks into Israeli territory and its use of precision and ballistic missiles that have reshaped the battlefield.

Tel Aviv has widened its targets to include civilian-linked interests tied to the group. After striking branches of Al-Qard Al-Hasan, a financial institution directly associated with Hezbollah, it launched a series of raids on gas stations operated by Al-Amana in several villages in southern Lebanon.

Israel says the company represents “a key economic infrastructure for Hezbollah, generating millions of dollars in profits,” adding that the stations’ accounts at Al-Qard Al-Hasan are used to finance its activities.

The Israeli military said in a statement that targeting the gas stations “deals a significant blow to Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in Lebanon and to the ability of its operatives to plan attacks.”

It added that the strikes are part of broader efforts to undermine “Hezbollah’s economic entrenchment within the civilian population.”

An escalating path

Ali al-Amin, editor-in-chief of Janoubia, said the targeting of civilian institutions linked to the group “reflects an escalating trajectory in Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah, after earlier strikes focused primarily on security and military targets.”

He said this falls within “Israel’s declared efforts to uproot and eliminate the party.”

Al-Amin told Asharq Al-Awsat that the gas station network is “one source of funding and a revenue-generating institution, but certainly not among the main sources.”

An economist, who declined to be named, said Hezbollah’s core funding has historically come from abroad, whether by land, sea, or air, as well as through financial transfers and intermediaries inside Lebanon and overseas.

He said that “with the fall of the regime in Syria, land routes for funds were cut, while US-Israeli maritime control reduced transfers by sea.”

“Funds were also transported by air through Iranian diplomatic missions and Iranian aircraft, whose access to Lebanon has been blocked,” he added.

The source said “institutions linked to the party are still operating, and there are attempts to circumvent circulars issued by Lebanon’s central bank and the Justice Ministry through various intermediaries,” noting that “some of the buildings currently targeted by Israel are used to store funds.”

Direct impact on Hezbollah’s base

Efforts to financially squeeze Hezbollah are directly affecting its support base, which Israel is seeking to pressure, according to Mona Fayad, a political writer and psychology professor at the Lebanese University in Beirut.

She said “Tel Aviv is exerting pressure on this environment through various means, betting on it to mobilize and speak out against Hezbollah.”

Fayad added that “the party’s failure to provide financial support and services to its fighters, their families and its broader base is pushing its leadership to try to turn them into a pressure tool against the state, leading to internal tensions and social unrest that Israel is seeking to fuel.”

Arab World

Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Meshaal Contacts Gaza Factions on Fate of Weapons

Fighters from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades in Rafah, southern Gaza. (Reuters, file)
Fighters from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades in Rafah, southern Gaza. (Reuters, file)
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Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Meshaal Contacts Gaza Factions on Fate of Weapons

Fighters from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades in Rafah, southern Gaza. (Reuters, file)
Fighters from Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades in Rafah, southern Gaza. (Reuters, file)

Hamas is holding internal talks and consulting Palestinian factions on the fate of weapons in Gaza, an issue central to US President Donald Trump’s plan, which calls for full disarmament and links it to reconstruction.

Talks have slowed in recent weeks amid the US-Israeli war on Iran. Still, Hamas and faction sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas’ political bureau abroad and a contender to lead the movement, has contacted leaders in Gaza to discuss the weapons file.

A Hamas source said most contacts took place before the war on Iran, as part of ongoing coordination to forge a unified Palestinian position on “resistance weapons,” their future, and how to preserve core Palestinian principles.

A source from a Gaza faction involved in the consultations said leaders told Meshaal there are no longer “heavy weapons” as defined by Israel, including long or short-range rockets.

Remaining capabilities are limited, including small numbers of anti-armor rounds, improvised explosive devices, and light arms such as Kalashnikov rifles, as well as some DShK machine guns mounted on pickup trucks, which they said do not pose a threat.

The source said factions proposed handing over a limited number of pickup trucks fitted with DShK weapons, which Israel classifies as heavy arms. They also suggested exploring mechanisms with mediators to allow the “resistance” to retain light weapons under guarantees, with mediators overseeing the process in exchange for a long-term truce.

On tunnels, sources said most have been targeted and largely destroyed by Israeli forces, with only a few remaining that do not affect Israel.

Both sources said the ideas remain at the consultation stage, adding the weapons issue has not been formally raised by mediators, though informal contacts have taken place.

Israel insists on the surrender of all weapons. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said he wants Hamas to hand over 60,000 Kalashnikov rifles.

Palestinian sources said such numbers are not available in Gaza, calling the demand unrealistic after a two-year war that devastated the enclave.

Palestinian factions and mediators are awaiting a formal US proposal outlining its disarmament vision, but it has been delayed by the war on Iran. Limited recent contacts with mediators on humanitarian issues could revive discussions.

Leaders and field commanders in Gaza factions insist on discussing any approach to the weapons file and reject imposing terms on the “resistance.” A Hamas source said factions cannot easily give up their weapons after decades of sacrifices.

A Hamas delegation has been in Cairo for about a week discussing ways to ease Gaza’s dire humanitarian situation amid ongoing Israeli breaches, with expectations that mobilization could resume on issues related to a Gaza administrative committee and an international stabilization force.