US, Israel discuss when to scale back Gaza combat but agree fight will take months, envoy says

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the besieged enclave’s post-war future, which, according to a senior US official, could include bringing back Palestinian security forces driven from their jobs in Gaza by Hamas in its 2007 takeover.

American and Israeli officials have been vague in public about how Gaza will be run if Israel achieves its goal of ending Hamas control – and the idea, floated as one of several, appeared to be the first time Washington offered some detail on its vision for security arrangements in the enclave.

Any role for Palestinian security forces in Gaza is bound to elicit strong opposition from Israel, which seeks to maintain an open-ended security presence there and says it will not allow a post-war foothold for the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank but is deeply unpopular with Palestinians.

In meetings with Israeli leaders on Thursday and Friday, Sullivan discussed a timetable for winding down the intense combat phase of the war.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told Sullivan it would take months to destroy Hamas, but did not say whether his estimate referred to the current phase of heavy air strikes and ground battles.

Sullivan said on Friday, “there is no contradiction between saying the fight is going to take months and also saying that different phases will take place at different times over those months, including the transition from the high-intensity operations to more targeted operations”.