Israel plans to move forward with a total occupation of the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday in an interview with Fox News.
The comments, which came just before Netanyahu intended to meet with his security cabinet, are likely to further roil the international community. Global condemnation of Netanyahu’s offensive in the strip has grown in recent weeks, with critics charging he has devastated the millions of Palestinians still living there and left the region on the brink of famine.
“We intend to, in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza and to pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel,” Netanyahu said when asked if Israel will take control of all of Gaza. “That’s what we want to do. We want to liberate ourselves and liberate the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas.”
Netanyahu added that Israel does not plan to maintain long-term control of Gaza or act as a governing body in the embattled enclave, but rather to set up a “security perimeter” and hand over control to “Arab forces.”
The comments come despite reported objections from some of his most senior military advisers. In an apparent reference to that disagreement, the Israel Defense Forces released a statement from military chief of staff Eyal Zamir earlier Thursday saying, in Hebrew, that the “culture of debate” was key to the IDF’s culture.
The planned escalation also comes as Israel faces increasing pressure from foreign governments and international organizations to scale back its presence in Gaza and increase humanitarian aid in the region.
France, Canada and the United Kingdom have all announced plans in the last two weeks to recognize a Palestinian state, as international watchdogs have raised alarm about what a United Nations-backed report called a “worst-case scenario of famine.”
U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenča called reports that Israel intends to pursue a full-scale takeover of Gaza “deeply alarming” at a U.N. Security Council meeting Tuesday, warning that doing so “would risk catastrophic consequences.”
Still, Netanyahu has brushed off international condemnations of his government, even as international relief organizations warn that the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza are facing immediate threat of starvation.
“If I had to run the country based on these vilifications, I shouldn’t be here,” Netanyahu told Fox News.
President Donald Trump has also shifted his tone on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, breaking with Netanyahu last week in acknowledging that there is “real starvation” in Gaza but stopping short of joining his Western allies in recognizing Palestinian statehood.
But Trump has otherwise largely stood by Netanyahu and his government, posting last week that “the fastest way to end the humanitarian crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!”
