Is the Israeli military ever leaving Gaza?
Is the Israeli military ever leaving Gaza?
A year after October 7, Gaza may be turning into Israel’s “forever war.”
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It depends how you define Gaza - Israel seems pretty determined to annex what we now know as Gaza so my guess is that we'll slowly see Gaza shrink smaller and smaller until it simply ceases to exist.
There are no plans for annexation. That would mean having to offer Gazans a way to Israeli citizenship, which is unthinkable at the moment. If Israel wanted to annex, they would work on building a civilian or military government in Gaza like COGAT. However that’s not happening. Israel lets the leftovers of the Hamas government run parts of Gaza as much as they’re able. This is currently about neutralization and containment and the hope to pass the job of governing and reconstruction off to third parties like Arab and western states. Israel doesn’t want Gaza. It wants security from attacks from Gaza. Even those advocating for settlements, see settlements as a step towards security. The IDF will stay for a bit to play whack a mole with militants and find more of their underground infrastructure.
I forsee a slow annexation like we've seen in the west bank - settlements are setup bulldozing existing neighborhoods and slowly expand... pushing out what few Palestinians chose to remain among the constant terror campaign. Gradually the demographics of the region will change to reinforce Palestinian minority and encourage even more flight. I doubt anything will happen suddenly, Gaza will just slowly disappear.
Like we've seen since the beginning of Israel.