PM says plan is to capture entire Strip, remove Hamas, hand it to non-PA ‘Arab forces’; adds Israel and US agree on principles for post-Hamas Gaza, including non-Israeli civil control. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday, ahead of a key cabinet meeting on the next stage of the Gaza war, that Israel intends to take control of the entire Strip, then hand it over to an unspecified Arab governing force.
The premier said a “detailed plan” will be developed for this post-Hamas government, and that it will not place Israel in control of the Strip as a civil government, nor allow the Palestinian Authority to play a role. Asked in a Fox News interview if Israel will take over the entire 26-mile strip, Netanyahu said: “We intend to, in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza (sic), and to pass it civilian governance.” But, he stressed, “We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter, but we don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body.”
The prime minister said that Israel wants to “hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly, without threatening us, and giving the Gazans a good life.”Netanyahu also told a group of visiting Indian journalists, according to the English-language CNN-News18, that, “Our plan is not to occupy or annex Gaza. Our goal is to destroy Hamas and get our hostages back, and then hand over Gaza to a transitory government.” (Read More)
