By Mike Brest. Media: Washingtonexaminer
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his stance against the Palestinian Authority taking control of the Gaza Strip if Hamas is removed from power, underscoring a continued divide between his government and the Biden administration.
“As long as I am Prime Minister — this will not happen,” Netanyahu wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in response to a report from Sky News Arabia that Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the PA, which leads the West Bank, has expressed the body’s readiness to assume power in Gaza. “Whoever educates their children for terror, funds terror and supports families of terrorists, could not control Gaza after we eradicate Hamas.”
Netanyahu’s comments, which he made clear before Wednesday’s social media post, represent a divide between himself and President Joe Biden, who publicly called for “a revitalized Palestinian Authority” to take over Gaza last month as they “work toward a two-state solution.”
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Thursday that a revitalized PA would include “cracking down on corruption,” increased “engagement with civil society,” and the increase in the capabilities of their security forces.
“If you envision in the post-conflict environment as we do, Gaza and West Bank that are united under Palestinian Authority leadership, you would need to see an increase in the capability of the PA security forces, so it’s those types of reforms and increases in capabilities that we have in mind,” Miller said.
Israeli leaders have declared their goals of the war are to remove Hamas from power in Gaza and to strip them of their military capabilities, though international leaders are still trying to come up with a long-term plan for what happens in Gaza once the war ends if Hamas is no longer the governing body of the strip.
The U.S. does not support the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, nor does it support any shift in land that would shrink the size of Gaza, which is a reference to one possible idea where a buffer zone would cut into the enclave, Miller explained Wednesday. He also acknowledged that Israeli forces, whom the U.S. does not believe should take over the governance of Gaza indefinitely, will likely need to stay temporarily after the conflict to avoid leaving “a security vacuum.”
“I don’t think it would be in anyone’s interest, not Israel’s interest, it wouldn’t be in the Palestinian people’s interest for, at the end of it, major combat operations for Israel to just leave and leave a security vacuum in place where there can be granted lawlessness inside Gaza and innocent civilians exploit it, so we understand there will need to be some transition period at the end of combat operations,” Miller said.
Should Israeli forces stay in Gaza following the conclusion of the war, their troops would run the risk of counterinsurgency by existing or new terrorist groups in the strip.
The war began on Oct. 7 when Hamas carried out the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history. Roughly 1,200 people were killed during the attack, the vast majority of whom were civilians. Roughly 240 people were taken hostage and brought back to Gaza during the attack, while slightly less than half were freed during a weeklong ceasefire that ended last week.
The Israeli military campaign has displaced roughly 80% of the Palestinian population in Gaza, according to the United Nations, while roughly 15,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry. An Israeli military spokesman said this week that the death toll for civilians to combatants is 2-to-1, which demonstrates the near-impossible task of fighting in an urban environment against an adversary that embeds itself into civilian communities.
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