By undermining a new Palestinian technocratic body, Israel is trying to make Gaza appear ungovernable — and prove the need for its sustained military rule.
By Muhammad Shehada January 29, 2026
When U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff announced the start of phase two of President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan in mid-January, it marked the inauguration of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) — a 15-member Palestinian technocratic body tasked with providing services and managing reconstruction in the ravaged enclave, supervised by Trump’s Board of Peace and Gaza Executive Board.
Within hours of the announcement, all major Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas, had welcomed the formation of the NCAG. Many of the committee’s members are well-known and respected figures who quickly garnered popular support. Chairman Ali Shaath himself lost his father during Israel’s genocide in Gaza and demands Israel be “held accountable,” while having been openly critical of Trump’s “Gaza Riviera” plan. The committee’s health commissioner, Dr. Aed Yaghi, is a longtime civil society activist who headed the Palestinian Medical Relief Society in Gaza. Ayed Abu Ramadan, the trade and industry commissioner, was chair of Gaza’s Chamber of Commerce and has been a vehement opponent of Israel’s policy of backing criminal gangs in the Strip.
The public in Gaza also breathed a sigh of relief when the committee’s first decision was to waive all taxes or fees on individuals and businesses imposed by Hamas’ government (both before October 7 and since the ceasefire), and when Shaath promised the reopening of the Rafah Crossing in his first televised appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
But since its formation two weeks ago, Israel has yet to allow the NCAG to even enter Gaza, let alone rebuild it.
Even though Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to join the Board of Peace at Trump’s invitation, the Israeli prime minister publicly rebuked the president and criticized the Gaza Executive Board as running “contrary to Israeli policy.” Shortly after, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared“Gaza is ours” and called the Trump plan “bad for Israel.” Smotrich demanded that the plan be shelved in place of resuming “a full-force assault on Gaza” and rebuilding “permanent Israeli settlements” in the enclave.
The Israeli newspaper Maariv even reported that Israel is currently “preparing for the collapse of the Trump plan” and has already made preparations for resuming its assault on Gaza “without restrictions,” seeking this time to directly occupy the entire Strip. Israel’s Channel 14 further highlighted that the army’s chief of staff has approved plans for a large-scale attack on the enclave, including the invasion of areas that Israeli forces didn’t enter during two years of fighting.
In other words, Israel has made no secret of its intention to keep Gaza deadlocked indefinitely. The Israeli government is proactively taking steps to ensure that phase two of Trump’s plan will not proceed as planned — and at most, as Netanyahu remarked dismissively, remain a “symbolic” spectacle — in order to convince the Americans that Gaza is ungovernable, and thus prove the need for sustained Israeli military rule.
