Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel does not want to conquer, occupy or rule Gaza after the war against Hamas, but a “credible force” will be needed to enter Palestinian territory if necessary to prevent the emergence of militant threats. Netanyahu suggested earlier this week that Israel would be responsible for Gaza’s security indefinitely, a move not supported by the United States, Israel’s main ally.
Speaking on Fox News on Thursday, the Israeli prime minister said: “We don’t want to conquer Gaza, we don’t want to occupy Gaza and we don’t want to rule Gaza.” Netanyahu said that a civilian government would have to be formed in the territory, but that Israel would ensure that the October 7 attacks by Hamas would not be repeated. “So we have to have a credible force that, if necessary, will go into Gaza and kill the killers. Because that is what will prevent the re-emergence of a Hamas-like entity,” Netanyahu said.
The statement comes as Israel launches airstrikes on or near at least three hospitals, further collapsing the Palestinian territory’s precarious health system as it struggles to cope with thousands of people wounded or displaced in Israel’s war against Hamas militants. Israel has not responded to these claims.
Palestinian officials said the sites included the area of Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, which the IDF said was in an area it called the “heart of intelligence and operational activities” of Hamas when it planned the Oct. 7 attacks. Hamas and hospital staff denied this, saying the IDF was using the allegations as a pretext to attack the hospital.
Early Friday morning, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra told Al Jazeera television that Israel had targeted the courtyard of Gaza City’s medical complex and that there were casualties, but did not give details. The director of Abu Salmiya Hospital told Al Jazeera that at least six people were killed in the strike.
Palestinian media released a video by Al Shifa, which Reuters could not immediately confirm, which it claims shows the aftermath of an Israeli attack on a parking lot where displaced Palestinians took refuge, with journalists at the scene. “Given the current attacks and fighting near (Al Shifa), we are seriously concerned about the welfare of the thousands of civilians there, including many children, who are seeking medical care and shelter,” Human Rights Watch said. Qidra added that Al-Rantisi Pediatric Hospital and Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital “were exposed to a series of direct attacks and bombings on Friday.” He also said that vehicles on the territory of the hospital in Al-Rantisa were set on fire during the strikes, which were later partially extinguished.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on Qidra’s statement, which Reuters could not independently verify.
Thousands of Palestinians continued to flee south from northern Gaza on Thursday as the White House announced that Israel would begin implementing four-hour “humanitarian pauses” in parts of the territory to allow people to leave. US national security spokesman John Kirby said the breaks would allow people to pass through the two humanitarian corridors, which he described as a “significant first step”. In the hours after that statement, there were no signs of letting up in the fighting that devastated the coastal territory.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 10,800 Palestinians, according to health officials there. The lack of basic supplies led to a humanitarian disaster, and wounded people overwhelmed the fragile medical system.
Hamas militants ravaged southern Israeli communities on October 7 in an attack that Israel says killed 1,400 people.
US officials say the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, should return to govern Gaza after the war. Hamas took control of Gaza from PA forces and President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007. Top Palestinian officials, including Abbas, say the PA’s return to Gaza must be accompanied by a political solution ending Israel’s occupation of the territory it seized in the 1967 Middle East war.
Netanyahu said on Thursday that after the war, “what we must see is a demilitarized, deradicalized and rebuilt Gaza.”
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told PBS this week that the PA will not return to Gaza with the help of an “Israeli tank.”
An IDF spokesman said there were no changes to the humanitarian break policy in Gaza, playing down US claims that daily four-hour humanitarian breaks would be introduced.
An IDF spokesman confirms that the army plans only “tactical, local humanitarian aid breaks, which are limited in time and area,” in response to a White House spokesman’s claim that Israel will engage in daily, four-hour humanitarian aid breaks across northern Gaza.
“There’s no ceasefire, I repeat there’s no ceasefire. What we are doing, that four-hour window, these are tactical, local pauses for humanitarian aid,” army spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said.
Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told reporters that the planned breaks are a continuation of Israel’s humanitarian corridor policy: four-hour windows to allow civilians to travel from north to south of Gaza, which is relatively safer and receives humanitarian aid.
“We see people moving, tens of thousands even though there is pressure from Hamas not to let them go,” Hecht said, adding that the IDF plans to expand and do more.
He emphasized that there was no change in policy and that these were tactical pauses for movement from certain areas to the south of Gaza, Reuters writes.
The draft document prepared by the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence presents a proposal to relocate the population of Gaza to tent cities in northern Sinai, which is interpreted as a first indication of a possible exit strategy to the war by the political leadership, reports Israeli media.
According to the daily newspaper Haaretz, among the many proposals in the new document, it is suggested that Israel could initially relocate the population of the Gaza Strip to tent cities, followed later by the establishment of permanent communities in northern Sinai.
“The document presents two additional alternatives for the future of the Gaza Strip that do not involve population resettlement. One would allow the Palestinian Authority, which has partial control over the West Bank and was driven out of Gaza by Hamas in 2007, to control Gaza with the remaining current residents. Another option would be for Israel to establish a ‘local Arab government’ by Gazans who remain in their homes after the fall of the Hamas regime,” Haaretz writes, citing sources.
As previously reported, the settlement option for Gazans in northern Sinai includes a buffer zone of several kilometers that would prevent Gazans from approaching the Israeli border.
The Ministry confirmed the existence of the document, but a source familiar with its draft said that the Government is not expected to discuss the proposal and that the Ministry of Intelligence is not the government body that would be responsible for making such decisions.
“Sources in the ministry downplayed the importance of the document. But it is initial evidence that Israeli government officials are examining exit strategies once Israel’s goal of ending Hamas rule in Gaza is achieved. The document admits that the resettlement of the Gaza population would not gain international legitimacy, but claims that it would reduce the number of casualties among the Gaza population,” the Israeli media reported.
Namely, according to reports from foreign agencies, more than 1.4 million people across Gaza have left their homes, almost half of them settled in United Nations (UN) shelters, after repeated warnings from the Israeli army that they will be in danger if they stay in northern Gaza.
In response to this document, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that it is an “initial document” that can be repeated at various levels of government and security services.
“The issue of ‘the day after’ has not been discussed in any official forum in Israel, which is now focused on eliminating Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities,” the response states, Haaretz states.
