2023-12-05 22:10:00
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Europa Press/Contact/JINI)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the military would have to maintain indefinite security control over the Gaza Strip long following the war once morest Hamas ends.
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“Gaza must be demilitarized,” the prime minister said during a press conference. “And only the IDF can take care of that. No international force can do that for us. “We saw what happened in other places where international forces were taken for disarmament purposes.”
Last week, Netanyahu said he will not allow the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), which governs small parts of the occupied West Bank, to control the Gaza Strip once Israeli troops eliminate the Islamist group Hamas.
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“I will not make the mistake of allowing the ANP to govern in Gaza, it will be the same” as Hamas, the president said in a televised press conference, in which he advocated for “a new vision, a change” in the Palestinian enclave. , involving “Israeli security and control.”
“Are we going to reinstate the same entity in Gaza that has not been reformed? Is that what our best friends are advising us? I think differently,” he added.
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The United States, Israel’s main partner and defender of the creation of a Palestinian state, has advocated the unification of Gaza and the West Bank under PA government once the war ends, but Netanyahu rejects that possibility, arguing that the PA and Hamas They have in common “the ideology that denies the existence of Israel.”
Tuesday’s comments came as Israel’s military said its troops had entered Gaza’s second-largest city in its bid to remove Hamas rulers from the territory. The war has already killed more than 15,000 Palestinians and displaced more than three-quarters of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, who are being left without safe places to go.
Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip (IDF/Europa Press)
The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said the death toll in the territory since Oct. 7 has surpassed 15,890, with more than 41,000 injured. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths, but said 70% of those killed were women and children. Israel says it targets Hamas operatives and blames the militants for civilian casualties, accusing them of operating in residential neighborhoods.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt, which mediated an earlier ceasefire, say they are working on a longer truce. Hamas said talks on the release of more hostages captured by militants on Oct. 7 must be linked to a permanent ceasefire.
For his part, the head of Israel’s army has confirmed that Israel is considering flooding Hamas tunnels in Gaza with seawater to destroy the militant group’s underground network.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the military has set up a system of large bombs that might flood the roughly 300 kilometers of Hamas tunnels in Gaza.
When asked regarding the report, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said flooding the tunnels might be a “good idea” and was “one of several options we are considering.” Hamas is believed to have an extensive network of tunnels that it uses to move fighters, weapons and supplies throughout Gaza.
Israel has said it has already destroyed hundreds of tunnel sections during the war. It is unclear whether flooding the tunnels with seawater might threaten Gaza’s already overburdened underground freshwater aquifer or potentially damage the ground with salt and hazardous materials.
(With information from AP and EFE)
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