Israel's military considers Gaza government backed by Saudi Arabia and UAE: Report

Israel is considering how to create a new government in the Gaza Strip that would be backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The report says that Israel’s military think tank has drafted a paper detailing "Hamas-free safe zones" that could be created in Gaza and managed by an authority backed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.

The article says that Israel and the US have also floated an idea to expel rank-and-file Hamas fighters from the Gaza Strip, by potentially offering them safe passage. 

The idea to give “low-level” fighters in Gaza safe passage out of Israel stems from a 1982 agreement that saw Yasser Arafat and about 11,000 Palestinian fighters belonging to the Palestinian Liberation Organization leave Beirut for Tunisia, after Israel laid siege to the city, according to the WSJ. 

Israel has said it doesn’t want the Palestinian Authority (PA) to govern the Gaza Strip if and when it defeats Hamas. The US has said it wants Gaza and the occupied West Bank to be governed by the PA.