On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel would maintain military control of Gaza and said he wouldn’t allow the Palestinian Authority to replace Hamas.
“Hamas will not be there. We’re not going to put the PA there – why replace one regime which is sworn to our destruction with another regime that is sworn to our destruction? We won’t do that,” Netanyahu told a Jewish News Syndicate conference in Jerusalem.
“Israel will in any case control the area militarily. We’re not going to succumb to any pressure not to do that,” the Israeli leader added.
Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed that Israel will occupy Gaza indefinitely, and his government has rejected Hamas’s offer to release all remaining Israeli captives in exchange for a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
In his remarks on Sunday, Netanyahu also praised President Trump’s calls for ethnic cleansing in Gaza, which he frames as “voluntary relocation.” When Netanyahu visited the US earlier this month, both he and Trump reaffirmed their desire to remove Palestinians from Gaza.
In recent months, Netanyahu and other high-level Israeli officials have made clear their goal is military occupation and ethnic cleansing.
“Hamas will lay down its weapons. Its leaders will be allowed to leave. We will see to the general security in the Gaza Strip and will allow the realization of the Trump plan for voluntary migration. This is the plan. We are not hiding this and are ready to discuss it at any time,” Netanyahu said on March 30.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has significant sway over the government, said recently that the Israeli hostages in Gaza were not the priority and called for Israel to “eliminate the Gaza problem.”
