Netanyahu: “Israel does not seek to conquer, occupy, or govern Gaza”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that his nation does not want to annex, occupy, or rule Gaza after its victory over Hamas, but he did state that a “credible force” would have to enter the Palestinian enclave in order to stop violent threats from emerging.

Netanyahu’s remarks this week implying that Israel will remain in charge of Gaza security forever provoked criticism from Israel’s principal ally, the United States.

Washington said that it will not support Israel’s post-war control of Gaza. Israel has been bombing Gaza to demolish Hamas leaders after terrorists attacked southern Israeli villages on October 7 and claimed 1,400 lives.

Netanyahu said on Thursday, while appearing on US television’s Fox News, that “we don’t seek to conquer Gaza, we don’t seek to occupy Gaza, and we don’t seek to govern Gaza.”

According to Netanyahu, Israel would ensure that an incident similar to the one on October 7 did not occur again, but a civilian administration would need to emerge in Gaza.

Therefore, we need to establish a force that can be trusted to infiltrate Gaza and eliminate the assassins if needed. For that’s what will stop a group like to Hamas from resurfacing,” Netanyahu said.

Over 10,800 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s shelling of Gaza, according to local health experts. As basic supplies run out and the number of injured people overwhelms a meager medical system, a humanitarian disaster has occurred.

According to US officials, Gaza should be governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which currently has limited autonomy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In 2007, President Mahmoud Abbas’s PA soldiers lost control of Gaza to Hamas.

Leading Palestinian figures, such as Abbas, assert that a political settlement ending Israel’s annexation of land it won in the 1967 Middle East conflict is a prerequisite for the PA’s return to Gaza.

“What we have to see is Gaza demilitarized, deradicalized and rebuilt,” Netanyahu said after the conflict.

This past week, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told PBS that his country will not return to Gaza “on the back of an Israeli tank”.