Not even Israel claims it is legally part of Israel. Not the government. Not the courts. The Israeli government has, until the "disengagement", insisted in co

Not even Israel claims it is legally part of Israel. Not the government. Not the courts. The Israeli government has, until the "disengagement", insisted in court regularly that Gaza was under belligerent occupation. This was an important stance for them as claiming it as Israeli territory would give petitioners reasons to ask courts to apply Israeli civilian law. Israeli courts have accepted this stance many times over the years. By claiming this, any annexation would be a war crime (but to be clear, Israel has never claimed to annex Gaza, on the contrary, Israel has claimed it has ended the occupation and given up control - a claim that is not uncontroversial given the level of control it still exerts) [EDIT: And, unironically expect this deal and Karhi's statements to feature in future lawsuits as evidence that Gaza is still under belligerent occupation; this will matter greatly, especially now, as an occupying power has humanitarian legal responsibilities that can be challenged in Israeli courts if Israeli courts were to agree there is evidence Israel is still an occupying power] So under which authority is Gaza legally part of Israel?