Israel's Arab neighbours want to see Hamas gone, but spurn role in governing Gaza afterward

Despite the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees this past weekend amid a shaky truce, Israel's political leadership has said it intends to resume attacking Gaza without delay as it seeks to eliminate Hamas's military capability once and for all.

But at some point, the military campaign will end and a new phase in the Israel-Palestinian conflict will begin.

And in anticipation of that moment, the key question is: "What comes next for Gaza?" 

"There has to be a plan, an endgame with a timeline and the world must believe in it," Egypt's foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said as he met international journalists in London recently as part of a tour of Arab and Islamic ministers.

The group has been visiting global capitals with a dual agenda: first, to push for an extended ceasefire in Gaza, and second, to try to find the beginnings of an elusive new consensus on how the Palestinian territory should be governed afterward. 

CBC News was invited to the event, hosted by the Saudi Arabian embassy in London, and given the opportunity to ask questions directly of the foreign ministers.

Since Israel launched its offensive against Hamas following the massacres of Oct. 7, Palestinian officials claim the aerial bombardment has killed 14,000 people — 40 per cent of them children. Thousands of other bodies may still be buried in the debris.

Entire blocks of residential buildings have been reduced to rubble, and more than 1.5 million people have been displaced. 

As for the plan that Shoukry says must be present when Israel suspends its attacks, the Arab ministers offered few specifics about its main elements.

They were more equivocal, however, about ideas they will not consider. 

"If we want to talk about the day after the war, we won't come in and clean up after. That's not what we are going to do," said Shoukry.

That amounts to an outright rejection of the often floated suggestion that a pan-Arab administration combined with a multi-national security force could take over political and security control of Gaza once Israeli forces pull out.

"We would be seen as the enemy," said Shoukry.

He and the other ministers said the solution will not be found in having more outsiders rule over Palestinians.