Who will govern Gaza when Israel’s military offensive against Hamas ends? After five weeks of fighting, the answer remains shrouded in confusion.

Hamas, a Palestinian group with an armed wing, has governed the coastal territory of about 2.4 million people since 2007 after which Israel placed Gaza under a strict blockade governing the movement of people and goods in and out.

Hamas had seized power that year following street battles with the Palestinian Authority (PA).

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late last month that the PA should retake control of the Gaza Strip from Hamas, with international players potentially filling a role in the interim.

The Palestinian Authority currently has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

But in a meeting with Blinken earlier this month, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said the PA could only assume power in Gaza if a “comprehensive political solution” is found for the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict encompassing the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Last Wednesday Blinken again spoke of “Palestinian-led governance”, and a Gaza “unified with the West Bank” under the Palestinian Authority.

Abbas, 88, who has led the PA for 18 years, is widely unpopular and has been powerless against the rapid expansion of Israeli settlements and military control in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem.

‘Little hope’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long sought to sideline the PA, on Wednesday, told Fox News his country does not plan to reoccupy Gaza.

Israel had occupied Gaza in 1967 and remained there until completing a withdrawal in 2005, leaving local authority with the PA. 

“We don’t seek to govern Gaza. We don’t seek to occupy it, but we seek to give it and us a better future,” Netanyahu said.

Pushed on his plan for Gaza’s future, Netanyahu said the impoverished and blockaded territory must be “demilitarised, deradicalised and rebuilt.”

“We’ll have to find a government, a civilian government that will be there,” he added, without detailing who might form it.

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas fighters poured across the heavily militarised border on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages.

Vowing to destroy the group, Israel retaliated with bombardment and a ground campaign that the Hamas health ministry in Gaza says has killed more than 11,000 people, mostly civilians including thousands of children.

“I do not believe that any actor will agree to govern Gaza in these circumstances,” said Hasan Khreisheh, deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, which has not met since 2007.

“No Palestinian, no sane person will agree to return to Gaza on an American or Israeli tank.”

In a note, the International Crisis Group (ICG) of analysts said there was “little hope” that the already deeply unpopular Palestinian Authority could return to Gaza on the back of an Israeli invasion and not be “treated as an enemy”.

‘No one knows’

Earlier this week, Lebanon-based senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the group will not accept a puppet government in the Gaza Strip and will remain in the territory.

“Our people will not allow the United States to impose its plans to create an administration that suits it and that suits the occupation (Israel),” he said.

The US, Britain, Israel and others have designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

Saleh al-Aruri, the group’s exiled deputy chief of political affairs, has suggested that the future of Hamas cannot be divorced from that of the Palestinian people as a whole. To “talk about post-Hamas is to talk about post-Palestine”, he said.

On Friday, the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, which is fighting alongside Hamas, vowed to reject any imposed power on the territory.

“If an international force were to be deployed to govern Gaza… the Palestinian people would consider it an occupying force and oppose it,” said Mohammad al-Hindi, the group’s deputy secretary-general.

Jamal al-Fadi, a political and international relations professor in the Gaza Strip, believes that even if the PA agreed to regain control of Gaza, it would not do so without a potential agreement with Hamas.

Without this, he told AFP, the Palestinian Authority would “run the risk of a new civil war”.

Majed al-Aruri, a human rights advocate based in Ramallah, in the Israel-occupied West Bank, said everyone knows how the latest war started, “but no one knows how or on which terms it will end.”

Indians and their obsession with spices knows no boundary. After all Indian cuisine is much loved for its rich flavour, which honestly won’t be possible without varied spices. It seems former Masterchef Australia judge Gary Mehigan also agrees with it. We say this because Gary dropped a post showing his preparation for red chutney that he made to enjoy along with a Bombay-style Sandwich. How was it? All things spicy. Gary’s post included a series of clips. The first video revealed that he soaked Kashmiri red chillies so that they turn plump. In the clip, he can be heard saying, “Let’s see how hot they are?” Then he grinds the soaked chillies with a few ingredients that he mentioned in the caption. Before grinding it all into a thick paste, Gary Mehigan mentioned that he removed all the seeds so that it tasted spicy but not so much. He said, “It is hot, but certainly not as hot as the other ones.” The last video showed bright red chilli paste served in a small bowl. Oh relax, he won’t eat it straight away. In the note attached to the post, the celebrity chef revealed that he will add a bit of mayonnaise and kewpie so that it turns “really luscious”.

Sharing the post, Gary Mehigan wrote, “Red chutney for Bombay sandwich…I used big Kashmiri chillies, garlic, toasted cumin, toasted chana dal, a pinch of salt and black salt. Plus a good pinch of Shan chaat spice. It tastes really good but I’m putting it out there what’s your recipe…? Will mix a bit of mayo or kewpie in to make it really luscious…!”

Also Read: Chef Gary Mehigan Gives Shout-Out To Two Madurai Men Making Bun Parotta

The internet loved Gary Mehigan’s red chutney. Many users urged him to share the complete recipe.

A few users claimed that his way of preparing red chutney and their way of preparing garlic chutney are similar but with a difference in the quantity of garlic. A comment read, “This is also used in Bombay chaat and is known as garlic chutney so the only difference for me would be a generous dose of garlic and some lime juice.”

“So if you add some shallow fried tomatoes and onions and blend them together with this chutney you’ll make the yummiest red chutney that you can eat with dosa & idli,” read a comment.

Another person wrote that the red chutney “could go in as a base for the bhaji in pav bhaji”.

“Thank you for sharing this very authentic recipe! It’s my absolute favourite on sandwiches and parathas,” said a person.

Would you like to give this recipe a try?

A baby died in an incubator at Gaza’s largest hospital after the facility lost power, and another person was killed by an Israeli shell in intensive care, a spokesperson for the Palestinian health ministry said on Saturday.

Israel’s military, which residents said had been fighting Hamas gunmen all night in and around Gaza City where the hospital is located, did not immediately respond to questions on the comments from health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra.

“The situation is worse than anyone can imagine. We are besieged inside the Al Shifa Medical Complex, and the occupation has targeted most of the buildings inside,” said Qidra, who represents the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

The Israeli military has said that Hamas militants who rampaged through southern Israel last month have placed command centres under Shifa hospital and others in Gaza, making them vulnerable to being considered military targets.

“The hospitals need to be evacuated in order to deal with Hamas. We intend on dealing with Hamas who have turned hospitals into fortified positions,” it said in response to the question of whether it planned to enter Gaza hospitals at some point.

Hamas has denied using civilians as human shields and health officials say growing numbers of Israeli strikes on or near hospitals put at risk patients, medical staff and thousands of evacuees who have taken shelter in and near their buildings.

Qidra said Israeli army snipers commandeering rooftops of buildings near the hospital fired into the medical complex from time to time, limiting the ability of medics and people to move.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The hospital suspended operations after fuel ran out, Qidra said, adding: “As a result, one newborn baby died inside the incubator, where there are 45 babies.”

Hamas denies using the hospital for its military purposes and has asked the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to send missions to Shifa to investigate the Israeli allegations.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, which is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank – separated from Gaza by Israel and run by a rival administration to Hamas – said separately that 39 babies were at risk at the hospital.

Minister Mai Alkaila had initially said they had died because they could not get oxygen or medicine to them and electricity was cut off, but the ministry later corrected the information to say that one had died and 39 were at risk.

“39 premature babies in Al-Shifa Medical Complex are threatened with death at any moment, and one of them died this morning. Failure to bring fuel into the hospitals will be a death sentence for the rest. The incubators will only be able to work until this evening, after which the fuel will run out.”

Contacted again about the ministry’s statement, Qidra reiterated that there was no electricity at the hospital and no internet.

“We are working hard to keep them alive, but we are afraid we may lose them in the coming hours,” he said. “There is no electricity in the hospital completely.”

On Friday, Gaza officials had said missiles landed in a courtyard of Al Shifa, killing one person and wounding others. Israel’s military said later that a misfired projectile launched by Palestinian militants in Gaza had hit Shifa.

World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said health workers the group was in contact with at Shifa had been forced to leave the hospital in search of safety.

“Many of the thousands sheltering at the hospital are forced to evacuate due to security risks, while many still remain there,” Tedros wrote on social media on Friday.