'We Don't Seek To Govern Or Occupy Gaza': Netanyahu Says Israel Wants To 'Demilitarise’ Territory

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long pushed to marginalise the Palestinian Authority, told Fox News on Wednesday that his country does not intend to occupy Gaza.

Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Who will rule Gaza when Israel's military onslaught against Hamas is over? After five weeks of struggle, the solution is still a mystery, news agency AFP reported. Since 2007, Hamas, a Palestinian party with an armed wing, has administered the coastal area of around 2.4 million people, following which Israel imposed a stringent embargo regulating the movement of people and commodities in and out of Gaza. Following street fighting with the Palestinian Authority (PA), Hamas gained control that year.

Late last month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the PA should restore authority of the Gaza Strip from Hamas, with foreign parties potentially acting in the meantime.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority now enjoys partial administrative power.

However, in a meeting with Blinken earlier this month, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas stated that the PA could only assume control in Gaza if a "comprehensive political solution" to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian dispute in the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip is found.

Blinken mentioned "Palestinian-led governance" and a Gaza "unified with the West Bank" under the Palestinian Authority again last Wednesday.

Abbas, 88, has headed the Palestinian Authority for 18 years and has been helpless to stop the fast rise of Israeli settlements and military authority in the West Bank and occupied east Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long pushed to marginalise the Palestinian Authority, told Fox News on Wednesday that his country does not intend to reoccupy Gaza.

Israel seized Gaza in 1967 and stayed there until 2005, when it completed its departure, leaving local administration to the Palestinian administration. 

"We don't seek to govern Gaza. We don't seek to occupy it, but we seek to give it and us a better future," Netanyahu was quoted by AFP in its report. 

When pressed on his future plans for Gaza, Netanyahu stated that the poor and blockaded enclave must be "demilitarised, deradicalised, and rebuilt." 

"We'll have to find a government, a civilian government that will be there," he added, without detailing who might form it.

On October 7, Hamas terrorists stormed across the strongly fortified border, murdering around 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and seizing approximately 240 captives.

Israel replied by bombarding and launching a ground campaign, killing more than 11,000 people, largely civilians, including thousands of children, according to the Hamas health ministry in Gaza.