Gaza City – Khaled Abu Jarrar spends his days trying to find a way to get his wife treated for her recently diagnosed liver cancer.
The 58-year-old, originally from the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza but displaced with his family in Gaza City for the past year and a half, knows that his wife urgently needs to go abroad.
Recommended stories
3 List of itemsEnd of list
That’s why he’s so desperate for the Rafah crossing, formerly the Gaza Strip’s main entry point to the outside world, to open.
Israel has kept it tightly closed for the past two years, as it waged a genocidal war on Gaza, killing more than 70,000 Palestinians.
Khaled is looking to Gaza’s new administration — a group of Palestinian technocrats overseen by United States President Donald Trump’s so-called “Peace Board” — to turn things around.
The National Committee for Gaza Management (NGAC) met for the first time last week in Cairo, the capital of Egypt. As part of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan, the Palestinian faction will replace Hamas with managing the day-to-day affairs of Gaza.
The US announced the start of the second phase last week.
Khaled now wants to see tangible results, starting with the opening of the NGAC and the second phase of the Rafah crossing. But he is skeptical.
“I hope this is a committee with real powers, not just words on paper,” Khaled told Al Jazeera. “Otherwise, this will be a failed committee.”
His pessimism is understandable. Israel continues to attack Gaza, killing more than 400 Palestinians since the cease-fire began.
He has also made clear his opposition to the NGAC and has made little effort to improve life in Gaza. One of Israel’s most recent moves Order to close International humanitarian organizations providing vital medical services and food aid in Gaza.
“On the ground, the shooting never stops,” Khaled said, as he followed the news on the NGAC from a shelter set up in the former Legislative Council building in western Gaza City.
“In the media, they talk about withdrawal and reconstruction, but on the ground, the bombings from the north and south continue and things seem more complicated.”
Awaiting solutions
Khaled’s accommodation in a government building is not unusual. Thousands of displaced people have found refuge in structures that once administered Gaza or that have at least partially survived Israeli targeting.
This reality underscores the difficulties NGAC and any administration will face in trying to govern Gaza.
And that leaves any discussion of new committees and administrations hinged on a series of simple questions for the displaced: Can the technocrats overcome the sanctions imposed by Israel on Gaza? Can they make a tangible difference in the lives of Palestinians who are exhausted by displacement and loss?
The committee, composed of non-group individuals with administrative and technical expertise, is presented as a politically “neutral” framework. It will be led by former Palestinian Authority (PA) Deputy Minister Ali Shaath.
But Many Palestinians It believes its success depends less on its structure and more on its ability to operate in an environment still dominated by Israel and unwilling to allow reconstruction.
Palestinian political analyst Ahed Farwana referred to recent comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he described the second phase of the ceasefire as “symbolic”, as Israel has no intention of cooperating.
“So far, things are unclear for the committee, as it depends on the serious implementation of the obligations in the second phase,” Farwana told Al Jazeera.
Many obligations to Israel in Phase One of ArmisticeSuch as a cessation of attacks, a full Israeli withdrawal from certain areas of Gaza, and the opening of the Rafah crossing, have not happened.
Farwana believes that Netanyahu does not want to pay the political price of advancing a cease-fire in Israel and declaring a full end to the war, especially as he faces elections sometime this year.
If anything, Farwana expects Israel to continue to violate the ceasefire and expand the buffer zone, citing reasons why the one remaining Israeli body has not been transferred from Gaza. Hamas said it was impossible to reach the bodies due to the rubble left by Israeli strikes.
“If there is real pressure from the US, there will be a real change and the second phase will be implemented,” Farwana said, adding that the partial success of the ceasefire was largely linked to efforts by the US administration. “(But) leaving the field to Netanyahu won’t have consequences.”
Israeli sanctions
Israeli officials deny the existence of limits on the amount of aid flowing into Gaza. However, international organizations and local Palestinians point to delays in permit approvals, as well as lengthy vetting processes that prevent access to Gaza for much-needed goods, including non-food items and heavy materials for infrastructure.
The United Nations and aid agencies have repeatedly called for crossings to be opened and aid access facilitated, stressing that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic and that a large share of aid has yet to enter as agreed since the ceasefire took effect.
Due to the continued closure of the Rafah crossing, in particular, Gaza is almost entirely dependent on other access points, such as Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom), which is subject to complex vetting procedures and full Israeli security control.
Against these constraints, discussions about Gaza’s new governance become more complex, as the authority of any committee to manage services and reconstruction is directly related to its ability to operate within restrictions on the movement of materials.
Asmaa Manoun is eagerly waiting for things to improve.
The 45-year-old, originally from Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, is a mother of five, but one of her sons was killed during the war.
She now lives with her husband Mohammed – wounded during the war – on the steps of a partially destroyed building in Gaza City. A simple tarpaulin hardly shelters them.
Those terms explain why Asma did not initially hear the news of the formation of the NGAC and why the start of the second phase of the ceasefire was not discussed.
“Most of the time, my phone does not charge and the internet is not available,” she said. “Usually, we hear things from the people around us in the camp and discuss them.”
Asma had initially left southern Gaza, where she had been displaced, to Jabaliya in an attempt to return home. But continued Israeli shelling and shelling, including a bullet that killed a woman in a tent next to hers, ended the experiment and made it clear that safety was still a distant possibility.
Mohammed, 49, stood beside Asma as she spoke. His hopes for the new committee were clear: organize aid access and distribution, and manage the aftermath of the chaos in Gaza.
“We hear a lot, but in reality, we’re in the same place we’ve been for two years,” he said.
“The situation in Gaza is difficult. We can barely manage. For months, we have not received aid, food parcels or tents. Things are chaotic and Israel is interested in this chaos and using aid as punishment.”