Tel Aviv, Dec 31 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the war with Hamas will continue for many more months making it clear that there would be no ceasefire until all the remaining 140 hostages are released from Gaza.
Israel wants to maintain an open ended security over Gaza after the war ends in defiance of its closest ally US wanting a two state solution leading to an eventual statehood for Palestine.
Netanyahu said Israel must maintain open-ended security control over the Gaza Strip, but he kept the world guessing on what would come next.
“The war would continue for many more months,” Netanyahu told a news conference Saturday reiterating his intention to preserve an Israeli military foothold in a narrow strip of land in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt.
“(It) must be in our hands, it must be sealed. It’s clear that any other agreement will not guarantee the demilitarization that we need and require,” Netanyahu said.
Israel claimed Hamas had smuggled weapons in through the Egyptian border but Egypt opposes any Israeli military presence there.
Netanyahu has also said he won’t allow the internationally-backed Palestinian Authority, which administers some parts of the West Bank, to participate in any future rule over Gaza.
These were his public remarks about Israel’s plans for the Gaza Strip post war scenario.
Netanyahu’s stance has put him at odds with his closest ally, the US, as the Biden administration and Israel government grapple over who should run Gaza after the war.
The US wants a unified Palestinian government should run both Gaza and parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a precursor to eventual statehood, media reports said.
Israeli media have reported that Netanyahu has repeatedly dodged holding meetings with his War Cabinet about the post-war possibilities.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes in central Gaza killed at least 35 people Sunday, hospital officials said, as the military targeted areas in several parts of the territory a day after the country’s prime minister said the war will continue for “many more months”, resisting international calls for a cease-fire.
The military said Israeli forces were operating in Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, and residents said strikes are seen in the central part of a tiny enclave in a region Israel this week said it made the new focus of its war.
The war has raised fears of a larger middle eastern conflict with Hezbollah from Lebanon and Houthis from Yemen joining the Hamas in their war against Israel.
The US military on Sunday said it shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles fired toward a container ship by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.
Hours later, four boats tried to attack the same ship, but US forces opened fire, killing several of the armed crews, the US Central Command said.
Israel says it wants to destroy Hamas’ governing and military capabilities in Gaza, from where it launched its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
ash/pgh
