To have an idea of what life is like for Gaza’s more than two million people, one need only listen to 43-year-old Mazen Al Shandaghli. Speaking on Sunday – a day before the UN Security Council met in New York to discuss the territory's future – the displaced Palestinian told The National that days of heavy winter rain had flooded his family’s tent, forcing them to sleep outside.
“Before the war, we loved the rain. We used to sit by the fire, cook and laugh,” Mr Al Shandaghli said. “Now we hate it, it brings only fear and sickness.”
It is people like Mr Al Shandaghli and his family who urgently need outside help. Although the ceasefire is largely holding, Palestinian civilians are barely hanging on. Entire communities require increased aid deliveries as well as protection from criminal gangs and the Israeli military.
Gazans also need help in clearing millions of tonnes of rubble and unexploded ordnance and rebuilding their shattered towns and cities. In this context, Monday’s Security Council vote in favour of a US-backed plan that authorises an international stabilisation force is welcome.
Having mandated and accountable soldiers with the resources to bring order to a highly volatile situation could help Palestinians begin their long journey to recovery. That many of these troops would come from Arab and Muslim nations will help them win acceptance in the eyes of the local population. There are, however, some important caveats.
Hamas’s rejection of the UN resolution is problematic. It must realise the importance of putting Gazan interests first.
Some have raised concerns that an international trusteeship imposed on Gaza would further separate it from the West Bank and hamstring the creation of a Palestinian state. The US plan lays out what Washington calls a pathway towards an independent Palestinian state, but any stewardship of Gaza that divides its people from their compatriots in the West Bank will undermine peace efforts. So this must be a temporary and short-term measure.
There must also be Palestinian buy-in from the start. What’s left of civil society in Gaza has to have a say in how the proposed stabilisation force operates and be included in whatever form of governance emerges. Hamas must not stand in the way of other Palestinian voices, whatever the militants’ misgivings about the US-backed plan. Simply put, Gaza’s people cannot afford more war with an aggressive Israel that still occupies a large part of the enclave.
To secure Palestinian support, the stabilisation force cannot become another meandering, open-ended intervention, the likes of which has been seen in Lebanon. There, the UN peacekeeping mission's initial deployment is in its 48th year, amid accusations of increasing irrelevance. If foreign troops are to do some good in Gaza, they must not come to be regarded as yet more outsiders deciding Palestinians’ fate over their heads.
If such a scenario is to be avoided, the momentum to fulfil the peace plan’s next phases – including real Palestinian self-government – must be maintained. A Security Council-backed force has the potential to help bring about immediate stabilisation. But for a durable peace, Palestinians such as Mr Al Shandaghli cannot be left as mere bystanders to a project that concerns their survival as a society.
