JERUSALEM: The United States and the Zionist entity have discussed the possibility of Washington leading a temporary post-war administration of Gaza, according to five people familiar with the matter. The "high-level" consultations have centered around a transitional government headed by a US official that would oversee Gaza until it had been demilitarized and stabilized, and a viable Palestinian administration had emerged, the sources said.

According to the discussions, which remain preliminary, there would be no fixed timeline for how long such a US-led administration would last, which would depend on the situation on the ground, the five sources said. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the talks publicly, compared the proposal to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq that Washington established in 2003, shortly after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. The authority was perceived by many Iraqis as an occupying force and it transferred power to an interim Iraqi government in 2004 after failing to contain a growing insurgency.

Other countries would be invited to take part in the US-led authority in Gaza, the sources said, without identifying which ones. They said the administration would draw on Palestinian technocrats but would exclude Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which holds limited authority in the occupied West Bank. The sources said it remained unclear whether any agreement could be reached. Discussions had not progressed to the point of considering who might take on core roles, they said. The sources did not specify which side had put forward the proposal nor provide further details of the talks.

In response to Reuters questions, a State Department spokesperson did not comment directly on whether there had been discussions with the Zionist entity about a US-led provisional authority in Gaza, saying they could not speak to ongoing negotiations. "We want peace, and the immediate release of the hostages," the spokesperson said, adding that: "The pillars of our approach remain resolute: stand with(the Zionist entity), stand for peace." The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment.

In an April interview with Emirati-owned Sky News Arabia, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he believed there would be a "transitional period" after the conflict in which an international board of trustees, including "moderate Arab countries", would oversee Gaza with Palestinians operating under their guidance. "We're not looking to control the civil life of the people in Gaza. Our sole interest in the Gaza Strip is security," he said, without naming which countries he believed would be involved. The foreign ministry did not respond to a request for further comment.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, rejected the idea of an administration led by the United States or any foreign government, saying the Palestinian people of Gaza should choose their own rulers. The Palestinian Authority did not respond to a request for comment.

A US-led provisional authority in Gaza would carry significant risks of a backlash from both allies and adversaries in the Middle East, if Washington were perceived as an occupying power in Gaza, two of the sources said. The United Arab Emirates - which established diplomatic relations with the Zionist entity in 2020 - has proposed to the United States and the entity that an international coalition oversee Gaza's post-war governance. Abu Dhabi conditioned its involvement on the inclusion of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and a credible path toward Palestinian statehood. The UAE foreign ministry did not respond to questions about whether it would support a US-led administration that did not include the PA.

Behind closed doors, some Zionist entity officials have been weighing proposals over the future of Gaza that sources say assumes that there won't be a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza, such as the US-led provisional administration. Among those include restricting reconstruction to designated security zones, dividing the territory and establishing permanent military bases, said four sources, who include foreign diplomats and former Zionist officials briefed on the proposals. — Reuters