The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised more doubts about her future Gaza Stripsaying that the Palestinian Authority as it is now it should not take responsibility for the coastal enclave.
Israel vowed to destroy the Palestinian organization Hamas, which rules Gaza, following its cross-border attack on October 7 and has launched a full-scale invasion of the enclave. However it has not said who should exercise power in the enclave when the war is over, saying only that Israel will maintain overall security.
Washington has said so Israel cannot occupy the Gaza Strip after the warwith Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinken saying last week that the administration of Gaza must be reunited with the West Bankparts of which are administered by the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday that the PA may have a future role in the administration of the Gaza Strip. but Netanyahu stated late yesterday, Saturday, that he does not wish to give the current PA leaders absolute freedom in Gaza.
In a press conference, Netanyahu voiced his long-standing grievances about school curricula of the PA which he says fuel hatred of Israel, and its policy of employing Palestinian families imprisoned in Israel.
Such an organization should not take control of Gaza, he told reporters. Speaking to NBC today, he was even more emphatic. “We need a different beginning. We need a different administration”, Netanyahu said. Answering a question about what kind of body he will be, he replied: “I think it’s too early to say.”
Nabil Abu Rudayna, a spokesman for Abbas, told Reuters the Israelis sought to perpetuate divisions between the two Palestinian territories — the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.
“Israeli efforts to separate Gaza from the West Bank will fail, and will not be allowed, regardless of pressure”he told Reuters.
The PA ruled the West Bank and Gaza but was ousted from the latter in 2007 after a brief civil war with Hamas.
Although Western governments want to involve the PA in Gaza’s future, diplomats say, there is also concern that 87-year-old Mahmoud Abbas does not have enough power or popular support to take control.
“Currently, there is no clear idea of what might happen in Gaza when the war stops,” said a Jerusalem-based diplomat.
In addition, the Israeli prime minister referred to the possibility of an agreement for the release of the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, during an interview he gave to the American network NBC.
Netanyahu was responding to a question about the possibility of an agreement regarding women, children and the elderly taken hostage.
“Any chance of a deal?” the reporter asked him. “It could,” answered the Israeli prime minister, “but, I think, the less I express myself on this issue, the more I increase the chances of this happening,” he said, clarifying that things are progressing thanks to Israeli military pressure.
“We’re not close at all [σε μια συμφωνία] until we started operations on the ground,” he said. “But once we started the ground attacks, things started to change.”
“Putting pressure on Hamas leaders is what might result in a deal, and if a deal is available, we’ll talk about it when it’s here, we’ll announce it if it’s reached,” he added.
The Israeli military estimates that around 240 people were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip after the initial attack by Hamas. Among them, at least thirty minors including small childrenaccording to Israeli media.
On condition of anonymity, a Palestinian official in Gaza told AFP that Benjamin Netanyahu was “responsible for the delay and the obstacles to finding a preliminary agreement for the release of several hostages».
The Israeli Prime Minister was also asked about the issue of patients in Gaza hospitals caught up in the fighting between Israel and Hamas, and especially about the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, where thousands of people, sick and displaced, are located.
“There’s no reason we can’t get the patients out of there.”, he said. “We tell them to leave,” he emphasized, when asked more generally about the situation of civilians in hospitals. And “we’re helping them by creating safe corridors,” he said. “We have planned routes to a safe zone, south of Gaza City.”
According to Netanyahu, about a hundred patients have been removed from al-Shifa Hospital.
Source: News Beast
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