“I greatly appreciate the American support for destroying Hamas and returning our hostages. Following an intensive dialogue with President Biden and his team, we received full backing for the ground incursion and blocking the international pressure to stop the war,” said Netanyahu.
“Yes, there is disagreement about 'the day after Hamas' and I hope that we will reach agreement here as well,” he added.
“I would like to clarify my position: I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo,” stressed Netanyahu.
“After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism. Gaza will be neither Hamastan nor Fatahstan,” he stated.
Netanyahu’s comments come a day after he spoke at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, where he reiterated his opposition to the idea of the Palestinian Authority taking over Gaza after the war.
"Oslo was the mother of all sins. The difference between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is only that Hamas wants to destroy us here and now, whereas the PA wants to do it in stages. We cooperate with them against Hamas when it serves both their interest and ours, and up to a certain limit. We decided several months ago that we do not want them to collapse so that Hamas does not rise up in Judea and Samaria as well," he said.
It was later leaked from the closed discussion that the Prime Minister claimed that the number of victims of the Oslo Accords "is the same as the number of victims on October 7", which is approximately 1,200 people, "but over a longer period of time".
Some lawmakers from the Likud distanced themselves from Netanyahu’s comparison between the Oslo Accords and the Hamas massacre, including MK Danny Danon.
"There is no room for comparison, both because we are in the middle of the war, and also because the events of that black Saturday happened within a few hours – a number of dead and wounded that Israel has not known since its founding," Danon told Reshet Bet radio in an interview.
The Biden administration has made it clear that its desire is that the PA take control of Gaza after the war.
Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed that Israel will have to maintain security control of Gaza after the war, in order to prevent terrorists from carrying out an attack similar to October 7.
