Analysis | After October 7: Is Complete Severance from Gaza the Solution?

Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to Donald Trump’s plan for the "evacuation and reconstruction" of Gaza was: "Thinking outside the box." Here is a far-reaching proposal for thinking outside the box: neither evacuation nor reconstruction, but a scenario of complete and total severance of Israel from the Gaza Strip. The time is now.

The idea is not new, but until now, it has not been considered viable or included in any agenda. The time is now. This is the right moment because we have no reason to be in Gaza. There is one prerequisite: first and foremost, before any step is taken, the immediate return of all hostages—alive and deceased—without delay, until the last hostage is home.

Because we have no reason to be in Gaza. It is not Israeli territory, nor has it ever been. Gaza and its surroundings were not promised to Abraham in the Covenant of the Pieces. Gaza is not part of "Greater Israel." It is neither the land of our forefathers nor our homeland. Today’s Gaza Strip is a foreign and hostile territory, and aside from a fringe group, no one has ever sought to settle there.

The idea is complete severence from Gaza. No food supply, no cement, no concrete, no fuel, no consumer goods, no worker crossings, and no humanitarian aid after the severence. Such a severance must be accompanied by the consent of Arab states with which Israel has peace agreements, as well as Western countries, led by the U.S. A total severence will require certain guarantees, which can be discussed.

It should not be difficult to explain to the world that Israel has no legal obligation—either under Israeli or international law—to provide for Gaza’s residents. For years, we sustained them; tens of thousands of Gazans worked in Israel, earning a livelihood for their families.

Yet, some of them used their jobs at construction sites to track military targets for Hamas. Beneath the homes of others and under their hospitals, Hamas operatives dug massive tunnels to store weapons and explosives, in preparation for October 7. Tunnels for attacks and tunnels to hold hostages for days, weeks, and months.

The land of Gaza, from north to south, from the ruins of Gaza City in the north to Rafah in the south, is soaked with the blood of IDF soldiers who fell in battle and civilians who were brutally murdered. We have no reason to be on that land.

A reminder: among the residents of the border kibbutzim were Israeli citizens dedicated to peace, who, before that fateful day, sought to assist Gazans, even transporting Palestinian children for medical treatment in Israeli hospitals as part of peace-building efforts. In return, they were kidnapped and held for months ten feet underground in Gaza under horrific conditions.

We have no reason to be in Gaza. It is an Arab-Muslim-Palestinian population. Those responsible for Gaza’s welfare should be the Arab-Muslim states: Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and distant countries with hundreds of millions of Muslims.

Gaza’s residents have not granted their Israeli neighbors a single day of normal coexistence in over 70 years. This has been the case since the days of the fedayeen, as reflected in Moshe Dayan’s eulogy for Roi Rutenberg, a member of Kibbutz Nahal Oz who was murdered by "infiltrators" in April 1956, up to October 7, 2023. "Infiltrators" and fedayeen became Hamas.

In the past, Gaza was a battlefield between Israel and Egypt, with fierce wars between the two armies. Heavy bloodshed, prisoners of war, Israeli captives in Egypt who suffered and were tortured but were returned under agreements and international standards.

But no children, women, or infants were abducted, and the terrorist organization denied hostages even minimal living conditions, let alone Red Cross visits. Since the peace treaty with Egypt, Israel has spent decades fighting an asymmetric war—not against armies, but against terror organizations, both in the south and the north.

One might argue that upon this severence, Hamas will reassert control, rearm, and plan the next October 7, while Israel remains in the dark because "we won’t be there." (Tragically, even on the night of October 6, when we were there, we did not know what was happening or what Hamas was preparing.) The IDF will find solutions for this, just as it does in West Bank terror hubs today.

There are conceivable solutions for a total severance scenario: a high, truly impenetrable iron wall, electronic surveillance equipment, and—unlike on October 6—a vital, strong, and continuous presence of IDF units, police, Border Police, and Shin Bet, as determined by military command. But most importantly, a display of overwhelming and professional military force along the Gaza border—preventive operational severence.

The IDF is not lacking surveillance tools—planes, UAVs, drones, observation balloons, and the eyes of the best soldiers, as long as those eyes remain open. This is one approach to complete and absolute physical separation from the millions of residents. They are there, and we are here. The State of Israel has no obligation to ensure the welfare of Gaza’s population, certainly not after October 7.

The idea of severence from Gaza does not contradict President Trump’s plans to buy/redevelop/rebuild Gaza. Whoever wishes to rebuild on its ruins, erect grand houses, develop the coastline with a promenade, and establish casinos—let them be welcomed entrepreneurs and contractors. But they will see a severed connection from Israel.

A significant percentage of Gaza’s population is young. There is no chance of thawing the hatred toward Israel as long as a three-year-old’s toy is a plastic rifle and he wears Hamas’s green headband. He cannot yet read the writing on the green ribbon, but soon he will.

These are the same green ribbons worn by the kidnappers of October 7 and by Hamas operatives who escorted the hostages from the tunnels to the Red Cross jeep on their way to freedom.

Many doubt whether Trump’s plans for Gaza’s future will materialize. Many doubt that normal neighborly relations or any easing of Gaza’s deep-rooted religious and social hatred toward Israel are possible. Not in the foreseeable future. A deep chasm separates the two peoples on either side of the Gaza border. The trauma of October 7 is deeply etched in the hearts of the Israeli people for years to come.

A total severance of Israel from Gaza may be a logical and practical solution. This is thinking outside the box, but it is feasible. It is possible.