Top line
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday refused to endorse calls from world leaders – including US officials – for the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the war ends, reiterating his position that the Palestinian Authority does not failed to quell terrorism in Gaza.
Highlights
Netanyahu pledged to “destroy Hamas” and then establish a “large-scale Israeli military envelope” in Gaza to prevent terrorism from growing: “wherever we leave…”. . . very quickly, terrorism reappears, so we have achieved nothing,” he said. CNN State of the Union.
Netanyahu made the statement when asked to clarify what he meant the day before, when he told a news conference that Israel would maintain “comprehensive control of security, including the capacity to enter every time we want to eliminate terrorists.”
Israel’s prime minister said Sunday that the Palestinian Authority had “failed” to “demilitarize” and “deradicalize Gaza,” adding that “the Palestinian Authority was already in Gaza” and that “Hamas had taken power and ‘had expelled,’ he said, referring to the Hamas action. Takeover of Gaza in 2007.
Netanyahu also told NBC Meet the press On Sunday, a “different authority” is expected to govern Gaza, but declined to give further details.
That view contradicts that of U.S. officials, as well as a coalition of Arab and European countries: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that there should be “Palestinian-led and Gaza-led governance.” unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority” once the war ended. .
Tangent
Netanyahu also said on NBC on Sunday that there “could be” a deal to release the hostages, but did not specify a timetable and declined to give further details. “I think the less I talk about it, the more likely it will come to fruition,” he said. Hamas killed around 1,400 Israelis and took around 240 people hostage, including Americans, when it invaded Israel on October 7.
Key context
Netanyahu sparked widespread backlash when he said Monday that Israel will have indefinite “security responsibility” over Gaza after the war. Israel seized control of the Gaza Strip from Egypt in 1967 and has maintained a military blockade around the 140-square-mile territory since the 2007 Hamas takeover, which Israeli authorities say is aimed at preventing a terrorist invasion. More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began on October 7, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, prompting US officials – who have pledged unwavering support to Israel – to express themselves more on the need to spare civilian lives. Israel agreed Thursday to suspend its counterattacks for four hours each day to allow humanitarian aid to arrive and allow civilians to leave Gaza safely, but Netanyahu resisted calls for an indefinite ceasefire. .
Further reading
Here’s what Israeli and US officials said about Gaza after the war (Forbes)
Israeli forces close in on Gaza hospitals, claim to hide Hamas tunnels — Here’s what you need to know (Forbes)
More than 100 UN workers killed in Gaza, as death toll rises (Forbes)
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