Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition partners on Saturday rallied behind the premier after he voiced opposition to the composition of President Donald Trump’s Gaza Executive Board. “The countries that resuscitated Hamas cannot be the ones that replace it. Those that support it and continue to host it even now will not be given a foothold in Gaza. Period,” tweeted Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, referring to the inclusion of Qatar and Turkey.
“Our brave fighters did not risk their lives in a tremendous national mobilization just to swap one problem for another,” Smotrich wrote. “The prime minister must insist on this, even if it requires managing a dispute with our great friend and with President Trump’s envoys.” The Gaza Executive Board, led by the United States and composed of officials from countries such as Turkey, Qatar and Egypt, “runs contrary to [Israel’s] policy,” Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday evening. The announcement of its establishment “was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy,” Jerusalem’s statement continued.
...Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir tweeted that he “supports the prime minister regarding his important statement.” “Gaza doesn’t need any ‘executive board’ to oversee its ‘reconstruction,'” he wrote. “It must be cleared of Hamas terrorists, who must be destroyed, alongside encouraging large-scale voluntary emigration in line with President Trump’s original plan.”
...Amichai Chikli, Israel’s diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism minister and a member of Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, said Jerusalem “cannot and will not accept” Turkish influence on its southern border, tweeting: “Erdoğan’s Turkey is Hamas.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has turned his country “into a regional aggressor responsible for unprecedented massacres and brutal repression, from the Kurds in Afrin, Aleppo, and Deir Hafir, to Alawites and Druze,” wrote Chikli. (Read More)
