Israel’s defense establishment believes that Hamas will soon relinquish authority over the Gaza Strip to a newly formed committee of Palestinian technocrats; however, at least in the short term, the terror group would remain de facto in control of the territory, an Israeli security official said Thursday.

Hamas currently retains control of just under half of Gaza following an October ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump in which the Israel Defense Forces partially withdrew. The agreement, laid out in Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war, ties further Israeli troop withdrawals to the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza.

While Jerusalem sees Hamas as unlikely to voluntarily disarm, the security official admitted that compelling it to do so by force could be expected to take years, though the goal is attainable.

The ceasefire, now in its second phase, calls for the day-to-day governance of Gaza to be handed to the newly formed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, or NCAG, a Palestinian technocratic body that is meant to exclude Hamas.

The 12-member technocrat committee is headed by former Palestinian Authority deputy minister Ali Shaath. Several other bodies will oversee Gaza under the umbrella of the Board of Peace, a group of world leaders inaugurated by Trump last week.

“Protocols are prepared, files are complete, and committees are in place to oversee the handover, ensuring a complete transfer of governance in the Gaza Strip across all sectors to the technocratic committee,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP on Wednesday.

According to the security official, Israel believes that even if Hamas officially announces that it has handed over control of Gaza to the technocratic government, it would still have tens of thousands of armed members in its military wing and internal security forces across the Strip, as well as civil servants in key roles.

This week, Reuters reported that the Hamas government urged its more than 40,000 civil servants and security personnel to cooperate with the technocratic body, and assured them it was working to incorporate them into the new government. That would include the roughly 10,000-strong Hamas-run armed police force.

Israel does not distinguish between the military wing of Hamas, its police and internal security forces, and its political bureau, considering all branches part of the same terror infrastructure. It is unlikely to agree to any inclusion of Hamas in the technocratic government or in any body tasked with policing the Strip’s approximately 2 million residents.

But the Israeli security official conceded that it would likely take a long time — possibly over a year — for the technocrat government to replace Hamas members serving in key roles, such as directors of........

© The Times of Israel