Even beyond personnel disputes, Israel has taken concrete steps to prevent the NCAG from operating.
Committee chair Ali Shaath was detained for hours at the Allenby Crossing while traveling to the committee’s first meeting. Other members were blocked entirely. Israel has refused to allow the NCAG to employ civil servants previously affiliated with either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority – an absurd condition in a territory where virtually all administrative expertise comes from those institutions.
Without staff, infrastructure, or authority, the committee would be reduced to a powerless shell. Even if Israel eventually relents, it insists on vetting every single employee, giving it effective control over who governs Gaza – without assuming formal responsibility.
Criminal Proxies and Manufactured Chaos
Simultaneously, Israel has activated criminal proxy gangs inside Gaza to publicly threaten and delegitimize the NCAG. These gangs, long accused of coordinating with Israeli intelligence, have carried out assassinations and sabotage operations in areas under Hamas control while maintaining plausible deniability.
The message to NCAG members is unmistakable: entering Gaza carries mortal risk. To reach Gaza, committee members would need to pass through areas near Rafah controlled by these militias. International delegations and aid convoys have already been harassed at checkpoints set up by these groups. The implications for civilian governance are dire. A committee that cannot safely enter its own territory cannot govern it.
Rafah: The Illusion of Opening
The Rafah crossing has become a case study in symbolic compliance. Although reopening the crossing was explicitly mandated under the ceasefire framework, Israel kept it closed for more than 100 days after the announcement, citing the unresolved status of a single Israeli captive.
Israeli media later revealed that the army had known the approximate location of the captive’s body for weeks, but Netanyahu delayed authorization for retrieval until U.S. pressure mounted.
Even then, the “opening” was rendered nearly meaningless.
Israel plans to allow only 50 Palestinians per day to re-enter Gaza from Egypt. With an estimated 150,000 Gazans currently stranded in Egypt alone, full return would take nearly a decade. Meanwhile, Israel insists that three times as many people be allowed to leave Gaza as enter it.
Families with children born outside Gaza during the war – even those with Palestinian ID – may be barred entirely. Every name must be pre-approved by Israeli security agencies. Passports are scanned and transmitted to Israeli authorities before being stamped.
Anyone returning must pass through an Israeli checkpoint for manual inspection – a process widely feared given Israel’s record of arbitrary detention.
The result is a system designed not to facilitate return, but to deter it.
Reconstruction Without Reconstruction
Israel has also imposed sweeping restrictions on reconstruction materials, including prefabricated homes and even tents, arguing that trace metals could be repurposed into weapons. This claim collapses under scrutiny, particularly given Israel’s own intelligence assessments that Hamas currently lacks the capacity to rearm.
When diplomats propose solutions – restoring banking services, rebuilding infrastructure, unifying governance between Gaza and the West Bank – Israel responds with deliberately unworkable alternatives: crypto-based financial systems in a territory without stable electricity, or technocratic bodies replacing the Palestinian Authority altogether.
This approach has been described by diplomats as a strategy of “Excellent, but…” – outward agreement followed by impossible conditions.
Occupation as the Unspoken Goal
Perhaps the greatest structural obstacle to phase two is Israel’s refusal to withdraw from Gaza. Roughly 60 percent of the territory remains under Israeli military control, with new outposts being constructed and long-term entrenchment underway.
Israel has conditioned withdrawal on the deployment of an International Stabilization Force, while simultaneously vetoing the participation of countries capable of making such a force viable. Without withdrawal, the NCAG would either be confined to isolated pockets or forced to operate under Israeli military supervision – instantly destroying its legitimacy. Israel has also insisted that no reconstruction occur until Hamas is fully disarmed, including tens of thousands of small arms held by families and clans – a process that could take years or decades.
The logic is circular by design:
- No governance without security
- No security without disarmament
- No disarmament without trust
- No trust without governance
Every path leads back to Israeli control.
Manufacturing Failure
What emerges is a coherent strategy: delay, obstruct, divide, and delegitimize. By sabotaging the mechanisms meant to stabilize Gaza, Israel ensures instability – then points to that instability as justification for permanent military rule. This is not about security alone. It is about narrative power.
If the NCAG fails, Israel will argue that Palestinians are incapable of self-governance. If violence resumes, it will claim there was “no partner”. If reconstruction stalls, it will blame internal dysfunction rather than imposed restrictions. Failure is being engineered in advance.
The Broader Implications
The sabotage of phase two does not merely doom Gaza’s recovery. It sets a precedent for future conflicts: that ceasefires can be hollowed out from within, humanitarian governance can be weaponized, and international frameworks can be rendered meaningless through procedural obstruction.
For Palestinians, the message is devastating: even when factions unite, even when technocrats replace militants, even when ceasefires are accepted, self-rule remains out of reach. For the international community, the challenge is stark. Either it confronts this strategy directly – with consequences – or it becomes complicit in sustaining a system of perpetual occupation disguised as crisis management.
What is unfolding in Gaza is not a failed peace process. It is a deliberately sabotaged one.
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