Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed in public comments on Thursday that his goal for Israel’s next military offensive in Gaza is the takeover and full Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory.
Netanyahu claimed that he doesn’t want to “keep” Gaza and that Israel would hand over the territory to an unspecified Arab force, but the Israeli military plans involve the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian civilian population of Gaza City and Gaza’s central refugee camps with the goal of driving them out of the Strip entirely.
“We intend to control all of Gaza. We don’t want to keep Gaza. We want a security perimeter. We want to hand Gaza over to Arab forces that will govern Gaza properly,” Netanyahu told Fox News.
In another interview, Netanyahu said Hamas and the Palestinian Authority couldn’t govern Gaza and that the Israeli military would be responsible for “overall security,” meaning Israel would maintain a tight grip on the territory. “We will never hand [Gaza] over to the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. We will provide overall security. There will be a security perimeter provided by us,” he said.
Netanyahu’s plan has faced resistance from the military since heavy Israeli troop casualties are expected, and the Israeli captives in Gaza will likely be harmed or killed during the offensive. Thousands of Israelis are protesting against the planned escalation, and the families of the hostages are calling for a diplomatic deal to free their relatives.
Despite the risks and the daily slaughter and starvation in Gaza, the Trump administration has decided to back whatever Netanyahu decides to do. “President Trump has decided not to intervene and to let the Israeli government make its own decisions,” Axios reported on Thursday.
