IDF soldiers gather next to armored vehicles near the Israel-Gaza Strip border, March 27, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Amir Cohen.

Israeli security leaders are reportedly concerned over the inclusion in the recently unveiled American peace proposal of some form of travel corridor between the West Bank and Gaza.

According to Israeli news website Walla, discussions have been underway at the highest levels of Israel’s security establishment regarding the Trump administration’s peace plan and aspects that may compromise the Jewish state’s security.

Citing officials who were privy to details of the discussions, Walla said that the main concern is that such a corridor — whether a highway or a rail line — may help facilitate a Hamas takeover of the West Bank.

The analysis holds that the security threat from the West Bank has been relatively limited in recent years because the Palestinians living there do not want to suffer under the collapsing economic conditions currently prevailing in the Gaza Strip. This could change if Hamas expands from Gaza to gain a foothold in the West Bank.

But Hamas, the security establishment believes, is not interested in a military confrontation with Israel right now because it is preparing for the upheaval likely to follow the death of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abbas is 83 years old and a chain smoker, and it is widely believed that he will pass away sometime within the next decade if not sooner. Hamas sees this as its opportunity to seize control of the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank, and the Palestinian national cause in general.