PM Netanyahu Wants Israel To Master The Entire Gaza Strip

JAKARTA - Prime Minister Benjamin Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday Israel intends to take military control of the entire Gaza Strip, Palestine, despite increasingly intensive criticism at home and abroad of the war that has lasted nearly two years in the Palestinian enclave.

"We meant that," Prime Minister Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News Channel's Bill Hemmer when asked if Israel would take over the entire coastal area.

"We don't want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don't want to set it up. We don't want to be there as a government agency," he explained.

PM Netanyahu said Israel wanted to hand over the territory to Arab forces who would rule it. However, he did not specify which rules of government or Arab countries might be involved.

PM Netanyahu made the comments shortly before a meeting scheduled for Thursday with a small group of senior ministers to discuss the military's plans to control more territory in Gaza.

The idea, which was primarily driven by far-right ministers in the PM Netanyahu coalition, of Israeli troops moving into territory they have not yet controlled in the enclave, has also raised concerns in Israel.

The security cabinet meeting follows another meeting this week with the military chief, described by Israeli officials as a tense meeting, saying the military commander had postponed the expansion of the campaign.

Two government sources said any resolution by the security cabinet needed to be approved by the entire cabinet, which may just meet on Sunday.

One of the sources speaking on condition of anonymity said one of the scenarios considered ahead of the security meeting was the gradual takeover of areas in Gaza that were not yet under military control.

Evacuation warnings can be issued to Palestinians in certain areas of Gaza, potentially giving them a few weeks before the military moves, the source added.

The full control over the region will reverse Israel's 2005 decision to withdraw Israeli citizens and soldiers from Gaza, while maintaining control over its borders, airspace, and utility.

Israel's far-right parties blamed the withdrawal's decision on the victory of the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, there through the 2006 elections.

Separately, Arab countries "will only support what Palestinians have approved and decided," an official Jordanian source told Reuters, adding security in Gaza must be handled through "legitimate Palestinian institutions."

Earlier this year, Israel and the United States rejected Egypt's proposal, backed by Arab leaders, considering the formation of an administrative committee consisting of independent and professional Palestinian technocrats entrusted to rule Gaza after the war.

Meanwhile, the United Nations previously cited reports of a possible expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza "very worrying" if correct.

Meanwhile, Gaza's Ministry of Health on Thursday confirmed that Palestinian deaths since the Israeli aggression in October 2023 had reached 61,258 people, including 197 people who died from starvation, 96 of whom were children, while the injured reached 152,045 people, quoted from Anadolu.