Tel Aviv [Israel]/Gaza [Palestine], December 8: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former British prime minister Tony Blair held unpublicized talks on the future of the Gaza Strip in late November, the Times of Israel and Israel's public broadcaster reported on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump's peace plan provides for setting up an international "Board of Peace" headed by Trump himself with Blair as a member. The plan also includes a transitional government comprising non-political Palestinian experts.
Israel's Kan public broadcaster reported that Blair met Netanyahu in Israel during a visit to the region, as well as meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Netanyahu's office has not commented on the reports.
According to the Kan report, Blair advocated during the talks that the Palestinian Authority, headed by Abbas, should initially control parts of the Gaza Strip as a "pilot project," with the intention that this be expanded, if it is successful.
The plan also provides for elections in the Palestinian areas. Kan reported that Blair was coordinating closely with Arab states and with the United States and also that he was expected to visit the region again soon.
The Times of Israel reported, however, that a source familiar with the matter "flatly denies" Kan's reporting that Blair had presented a plan for what the newspaper termed "the immediate, phased return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza."
Netanyahu's right-wing religious government officially rejects any Palestinian Authority involvement in Gaza's future.
Separately, Hamas rejects the disarmament proposed in Trump's peace plan.
Meanwhile, Gaza's Civil Defence has said it completed the transfer of the remains of Palestinians killed inside the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, ahead of burial in a cemetery.
In a statement on Sunday, it said the operation was conducted in coordination with the Ministry of Health.
The hospital was hit by two Israeli missiles in April as it was treating hundreds of patients. Several people were also killed in attacks near the hospital in September.
Meanwhile, Israeli air raids have hit the Maghazi camp in central Gaza.
Earlier, Israel's army killed seven Palestinians in northern Gaza, including a 70-year-old woman and her son. Attacks also wounded a child in Gaza City.
Gaza's Health Ministry has said that at least 373 people have been killed and 970 wounded since the start of the ceasefire in October.
The ministry added that the death toll in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023 has risen to 70,360, with another 171,047 people wounded.
It added that 52 percent of essential medicines were out of stock despite the ceasefire deal, as well as 70 percent of laboratory consumables.
Source: Qatar Tribune
