Netanyahu: Israel must have security responsibility for Gaza after war

Israel must have security responsibility for Gaza after the war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC on Monday, as he pushed back at United States insistence that the IDF must withdraw after it ousts Hamas from that enclave.

“Israel will for an indefinite period have the overall security responsibly because we have seen what happens when we do not have it,” Netanyahu said.

He pointed to Hamas’s killing of over 1,400 people and its seizure of over 240 captives when it infiltrated Israel’s southern border on October 7, as the reason why Israeli security control of Gaza was important.

“When we do not have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we could not imagine,” Netanyahu told ABC.

Israel had militarily controlled Gaza from 1967 until its withdrawal from that territory in 2005. 

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week it was his understanding that Israel did not want to control Gaza.

“Israel cannot reassume control and responsibility for Gaza,” Blinken said, adding that “Israel has made clear it has no intention or desire to do that.”
 

Int'l community concerned about post-war plans

The United States and the International community have been concerned about the day-after plan for Gaza, on the presumption that the IDF will succeed in destroying Hamas’s ability to control that enclave.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a conference of ambassadors in Brussels on Monday that “there can be no long-term Israeli security presence in Gaza.”

She underscored that “Gaza is an essential part of any future Palestinian state.”

Von der Leyen said these stances were part of a five-point plan for Gaza after the war. As part of that plan, Hamas cannot control Gaza and it cannot be a haven for terrorists, she said. 

In addition, she said, Palestinians can’t be forcibly displaced from Gaza and there can be no sustained blockade of the Strip.