Netanyahu says he wants Israel to take control of all of Gaza before handing it to ‘Arab forces’
Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel intends to take full military control of the Gaza Strip before handing over governing responsibilities to Arab forces.
The Israeli prime minister spoke to Fox News’ Bill Hemmer ahead of a key security cabinet meeting to decide whether to order a full military occupation of the wartorn strip – a move that UN officials have said would have “catastrophic consequences”.
When asked if Israel would take control of the entire 26-mile strip, Mr Netanyahu said on Wednesday: “We intend to.”
“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter,” he continued. “We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body.”
He said that Israel instead wanted to hand over the territory to Arab forces that would govern it, although it remains unclear who would take on the role.
Hamas has said that Mr Netanyahu’s statements “confirm that he seeks to get rid of his prisoners and sacrifice them to serve his personal interests and extremist ideological agendas”.
They added: “We affirm that Gaza will remain resistant to the occupation and attempts to impose guardianship over it.
“Expanding the aggression against our Palestinian people will not be a walk in the park, and the price will be heavy and costly for the occupation…”
Meanwhile, a Jordanian official told Reuters that Arabs would “only support what Palestinians agree and decide on,” affirming that “security in Gaza must be done through legitimate Palestinian institutions”.
The security cabinet session follows a meeting this week with the head of the military, which Israeli officials have described as tense as Israel’s military chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, pushed back on expanding the campaign.
Israeli media has said Mr Netanyahu sees this as the only way to destroy Hamas and free the remaining hostages following a breakdown of ceasefire talks. But Lt Gen Zamir and some other ministers have warned this move could be disastrous for the hostages and the population within Gaza.
Opinion polls show that most Israelis want the war to end in a deal that would see the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. It is believed that of the 50 remaining hostages inside Gaza, around 20 are still alive.
Families of the hostages and released hostages, alongside hundreds of supporters, gathered to protest outside the Israeli cabinet session in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening. The families chained themselves in front of government offices.
Anat Angrest, mother of the still-captive Matan Angrest, said: “For a year and 10 months we’ve been trying to believe that everything is being done to bring them back – you have failed.
