Israel plans to take military control of the whole of the Gaza Strip before handing it over to armed forces, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.
‘We intend to,’ Netanyahu said when asked if Israel would take control of the entire 26-mile strip.
‘We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body.’
It comes as Netanyahu is expected to hold a meeting with security officials to discuss a possible expansion of Israel’s military operation in Gaza after the breakdown of ceasefire talks last month.
The meeting, which was expected to start at 4 pm BST and last two hours, could result in an order for the full reoccupation of Gaza for the first time since Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers two decades ago.
Such a move would be aimed at boosting Israel’s security, but is fraught with humanitarian and diplomatic risks.
The meeting was scheduled for Thursday evening, but it is not clear if it will lead to any immediate decision.
‘We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly, without threatening us, and [to give] Gazans a good life,’ Netanyahu said.
The Israeli leader went on to describe how the removal of Hamas from political power in the Strip was a top priority.
‘We intend to in order to ensure our security, remove Hamas from there, enable all the population to be free of Hamas and to pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas nor anyone advocating the destruction of Israel,’ he said.
He added that the goal is ‘to liberate ourselves and the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas’.
The armed group has previously said it will not agree to disarm until a sovereign Palestinian state is established.
It comes after countries like Canada and France announced plans to recognise a Palestinian state, while the UK said it would if Israel did not meet certain conditions by September.
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by the U.S., to reach a ceasefire and a hostage deal broke down two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has said on Tuesday that the matter of taking over Gaza was ‘really up to Israel’.
The latest round of negotiations in Qatar broke down after both sides continued to disagree on key issues, such as a permanent ceasefire, Israeli troop withdrawal, and aid distribution.
US envoy Steve Witkoff described the Palestinian armed group as showing ‘a lack of desire’ in response to the latest proposal.
Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others in an attack on October 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.
They still hold 50 hostages, around 20 of them believed to be alive. Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
