Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will maintain security control over the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. He added that he will not allow the creation of a Palestinian State.
“Israel will maintain security control over the entire area from the Jordan River to the sea, and that applies to the Gaza Strip as well,” Netanyahu said on Tuesday. The statement from the Israeli leader is the latest indication that he has no intentions of allowing President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace deal to progress.
The agreement signed by Hamas and Israel in October requires Tel Aviv to withdraw its forces from Gaza and creates a pathway for a Palestinian state. During his remarks, Netanyahu made clear that he will not allow the two-state solution to materialize.
Notably, Netanyahu used the phrase “from the Jordan River to the sea.” When pro-Palestinian protesters in the US used that chant, Israeli supporters claimed that they were calling for the genocide of Jewish people.
The Israeli leader went on to say the next phase of Gaza operations is demilitarizing Hamas. “Now we are focusing on completing the two remaining missions: dismantling Hamas’s weapons and demilitarizing Gaza of arms and tunnels,” Netanyahu explained.
“As I agreed with President Trump, there are only two possibilities: either this will be done the easy way, or it will be done the hard way.” He continued, “But in any case, it will happen. I am already hearing the statements that we will allow Gaza’s reconstruction before demilitarization. That will not happen.”
Under the October agreement, Hamas did not agree to give up its arms. The group has maintained that it will only demilitarize if it is in the process of creating a Palestinian state.
Additionally, Netanyahu explained that Israel will reopen the Rafah border crossing. Rafah is Gaza’s sole crossing with Egypt. The Israeli leader explained that Tel Aviv will only allow a limited number of Palestinians to enter Gaza, but will not hinder any Palestinians from leaving Gaza.
Israel is in the process of creating a new camp for Palestinians in Gaza. Israeli forces have flattened half a square mile in southern Gaza. Tel Aviv plans to force Palestinians into the new camp, which will likely be surrounded by Israeli military positions.
“What they are building is, in reality, a human-sorting mechanism reminiscent of Nazi-era selection points,” Wissam Afifa, a Gaza-based political analyst, told Al Jazeera. “It is a tool for racial filtering and a continuation of the genocide by other means.”
