The Gaza cease-fire will remain “shaky” as Hamas continues to resist disarmament and exert control despite international pressure to step aside, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark told Newsmax on Sunday.
“It’s always going to be shaky until it’s finally implemented,” the retired four-star general told Newsmax’s “Sunday Report.”
“This is a hostile force with Hamas, even though they’ve said they’re committed to the cease-fire,” he added.
Israel on Sunday launched attacks, hitting targets in southern Gaza, after saying its troops came under fire from Hamas terrorists.
Health officials said at least 14 Palestinians were killed.
Clark said diplomatic efforts led by Jared Kushner and developer Steve Witkoff will continue next week, which he believes should help stabilize the situation, but only if there is clear coordination on the ground.
“You’ve got to get the forces that have agreed to come in organized and step by step, region by region in Gaza,” he said.
“You’ve got to execute a turnover plan in which [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas says, ‘Okay, we’re out. Here are our weapons, here’s the underground infrastructure,’ and you turn this over to the international force.”
That international force, he added, would need to assume both security and policing duties.
“It’s got to take up police responsibilities for the region. Or you bring in Palestinian police out of the West Bank and put them in the region underneath the international force,” Clark explained.
“There are some tricky problems going on here, and you’ve got to do it step by step. It would have been better if it had all been organized before the cease-fire.”
Behind the scenes, Clark said, international troops are working to establish coordination centers and determine Gaza’s security zones while developing a detailed turnover plan to “get Hamas out, disarmed, and gone.”
The challenge, he warned, is that Hamas appears to be reasserting itself even as the Israeli Defense Forces pull back.
“Hamas did execute these people, and it probably has some more enemies that it wants to settle scores with,” Clark said, referring to recent reports of Hamas militants executing Palestinians after the cease-fire was declared.
“Now the question is, is Hamas going to actually agree to relinquish control?” he continued. “It’s never, to my knowledge, quite agreed to be disarmed and sent away, even though that was part of phase two, the 20-point peace plan.”
He said the militant group faces a “fork in the road.”
“Hamas either accepts it and goes forward, as I previously described, or conflict reignites, and Hamas is again taken by force by the IDF,” said Clark.
“But they have no more hostages. They’ve given up their leverage. So they’d be wise to take the offer and get out.”
Clark said the fate of the remaining hostages’ bodies in Gaza underscores the fragile state of the truce.
“Hamas may or may not have control of all the bodies,” he said.
“Some of these people may have been tortured. There may be reasons why the bodies haven’t been released,” Clark added. “There are still other terrorist groups there. The situation’s a little bit murky right now.”
Still, he added, “Hopefully behind the scenes, what we’re not seeing on public television, is dialogue, some communication, someone working to get these bodies out and move to the next stage of the cease-fire.”
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