Gaza cannot wait: Time for a Palestinian Green Zone to end Hamas rule, IDF presence - opinion

The danger is clear: if Gaza is once again allowed to be under the bombardment of Israel and the terror of Hamas, if implementation is delayed until every political issue is resolved, then the ceasefire will officially come to an end, Hamas will try to control larger parts of the territory, Israel will remain inside Gaza, and the people of Gaza will continue to live without security, shelter, dignity, or hope.

The central unresolved issue remains Hamas’s disarmament. Hamas has refused to discuss disarmament until Israel complies with the terms of the ceasefire, including a full withdrawal from Gaza and international guarantees that hostilities will not resume. Therefore, Hamas has not yet formally accepted the plan placed before it.

But the people of Gaza cannot be held hostage to hesitation or endless negotiations. Even without a final Hamas agreement, the Board of Peace must begin now with concrete, visible, irreversible steps on the ground.

Gaza needs a legitimate Palestinian civilian authority that can begin to govern, organize services, restore basic public administration, and demonstrate to the people that there is an alternative to Hamas rule and Israeli military control. The NCAG should not remain a name on paper or a committee waiting outside Gaza. It must be functioning inside Gaza.

In parallel to the formal NCAG governance in Gaza, the process of moving the two million Gazans who are not Hamas militants or members of other armed groups into the Green Zone should begin under the authority of NCAG.

The only Gazans left in the Yellow Zone controlled by Hamas should be Hamas militants and other armed persons. Eventually, they will either disarm themselves or someone else will disarm them and take their weapons. Gaza will be demilitarized, and Israel will be forced to completely withdraw – these two steps go hand in hand.

Alongside the NCAG, the new Palestinian police force must be deployed immediately in the Green Zone. Law and order cannot be postponed until the end of the political process; it is the beginning of the process.

Gazans need to see uniformed Palestinian police protecting civilians, managing traffic, preventing looting, securing humanitarian facilities, and enforcing public order under the authority of the NCAG. A Gaza without functioning police will be a Gaza ruled by fear, armed clans, criminal networks, and Hamas intimidation.

At the same time, the International Stabilization Force should deploy along the Yellow Line, on the Green Zone side. The IDF and the Palestinian police must take up positions that make a practical and staged Israeli withdrawal from Gaza possible. This is not only a security requirement; it is a political necessity.

Israel will not withdraw while a vacuum of authority exists. Palestinians and the international community, including the Board of Peace, will not accept a future of permanent Israeli military presence.

The bridge between these two realities is a credible security arrangement: Palestinian police inside the Green Zone, the IDF along the Yellow Line, and a clear timetable for further Israeli withdrawal as stability expands.

The Board of Peace should now define this as the operational logic of the next phase: create secure Palestinian-administered areas, move civilians into them voluntarily and safely, provide services and employment, expand the Green Zone, and shrink the space controlled by Hamas and occupied by Israel.

Humanitarian zones must be established immediately inside the Green Zone. These cannot be merely tent cities. They must be planned temporary communities with shelter, water, sanitation, electricity, health clinics, schools, welfare centers, food distribution points, and safe public spaces.

Gaza’s people have suffered too much to be moved from one form of misery to another. The Green Zone must represent the beginning of a new Gaza: orderly, protected, administered by Palestinians, and connected to a larger political future.

Employment centers should be created at once. Every Gazan who is vetted and moves from the Hamas-controlled areas into the Green Zone should be offered work.

There is an enormous amount to do: clearing rubble, building temporary housing, repairing roads where possible and constructing new roads where needed, restoring water networks, reopening schools, staffing clinics, distributing aid, and rebuilding local administration.

Work is not only about income. Work is dignity. Work is stability. Work is also one of the strongest tools for weakening Hamas’s grip over society.

Hundreds of thousands of Gazans should be given a choice: remain trapped in areas controlled by Hamas and exposed to continued conflict, or move into a Palestinian-administered zone where there is security, food, shelter, schools, medical care, and employment.

As the NCAG begins to function, it must focus on four immediate priorities: law and order, humanitarian stabilization, employment, and economic recovery. Gaza cannot wait for a perfect political agreement before garbage is collected, schools are reopened, police are deployed, food is distributed, and salaries are paid. Governance begins with the basic things that allow people to live.

The Board of Peace must also mobilize money quickly and transparently. Donors will not invest seriously in Gaza if there is no credible authority, no security framework, and no mechanism to ensure that funds do not end up in the hands of Hamas or corrupt networks.

The NCAG, backed by the Board of Peace, should establish transparent financial systems from day one. Every dollar, euro, shekel, dinar, or cryptocurrency spent in Gaza should be traceable. The people of Gaza, the donors, and the international community must be able to see where the money goes.

Over time, difficult issues of land ownership will have to be addressed. Temporary housing cannot become another permanent injustice. Property rights, destroyed homes, family claims, municipal land, public land, and reconstruction planning will all require a fair legal and administrative process.

This cannot be improvised. The NCAG should begin preparing the mechanisms now: land registries, claims procedures, compensation frameworks, and independent review bodies. Rebuilding Gaza must not create new grievances that will explode later.

This must all be connected to the broader Palestinian political horizon. The goal is not to create a separate Gaza disconnected from the Palestinian national movement.

The goal is to stabilize Gaza as part of the path toward legitimate Palestinian representation and national renewal. That is why the target of Palestinian national elections on November 1, 2026, is so important. Everything done now in Gaza should point toward that date.

Elections are not a slogan. They require security, freedom of movement, voter registration, political pluralism, media access, and public confidence. If Gaza remains divided between Hamas control, Israeli military presence, and administrative chaos, elections will be meaningless.

But if the Green Zone becomes a functioning Palestinian-administered space, protected by the IDF, served by Palestinian police, and connected to the NCAG, Gaza can begin to rejoin the Palestinian political process.

Trump has unusual leverage with Israel. The Board of Peace has international legitimacy. Arab states, Europe, and the wider international community have an interest in preventing Gaza from returning to war.

But leverage and legitimacy mean little unless they are translated into action. The next phase cannot be another diplomatic document. It must be trucks, shelters, police stations, clinics, schools, jobs, and security arrangements on the ground.

The Board of Peace should now move where it can move, build where it can build, govern where it can govern, and expand the space of Palestinian civilian authority every day.

The people of Gaza need proof that a different future is possible. Israel needs proof that withdrawal will not mean the return of October 7. Palestinians need proof that Gaza will not remain under siege, occupation, or militia rule. The region needs proof that diplomacy can produce more than pauses between wars.

That proof must begin now in the Green Zone.

Gaza cannot wait for perfect conditions, which will never come. Conditions are created by action. The Board of Peace, the NCAG, the Palestinian police, the IDF, the US, Israel, Arab states, and the international community must now act together to build the first secure, functioning, Palestinian-administered space in Gaza.

From there, the Green Zone controlled by Palestinians must expand, Hamas’s control must shrink, Israel’s army must withdraw in stages, and the path must open toward Palestinian national elections on November 1, 2026.

This is the urgent task. Not another plan. Not another conference. Not another round of statements.

Implementation must begin now.