Israel does not intend to stay in Gaza permanently and is open to discussing who would take control of the besieged territory, the country’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday, according to Reuters.
Gallant said the only condition Israel would put forth is that any group controlling Gaza should not be hostile towards Tel Aviv.
“All the rest, in my opinion, can be discussed,” he said. “It certainly will not be Hamas, and also will not be Israel. We will maintain our freedom to act, to operate militarily against any threat.”
This came even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Gaza strip would be controlled by his country’s military after the war, reported Al Jazeera, citing the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation.
“After the war, a civilian administration will operate in Gaza and the strip will be rehabilitated under the leadership of the Gulf states,” said Netanyahu. “We will not give in to international pressure.”
The Israeli air and ground offensive in Gaza has killed over 18,000 people since October 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Around 2.2 million people have been displaced from their homes. As Gazans struggle to access safe drinking water and food, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week invoked the rarely-used Article 99 of the UN Charter urging its Security Council to stop the war in Gaza.
This was the first time in Guterres’ tenure that this provision was invoked.
Article 99 is the “only independent political tool” that allows the UN secretary-general to initiate a meeting of the Security Council on “any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security”.
Guterres on December 6 urged the United Nations Security Council to call for a humanitarian ceasefire and help avert a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
Nevertheless, Gallant has said that the current phase of the operation against Palestinian militant group Hamas will “take time”, reported the Associated Press.
Although the Israeli defence minister did not give a timeline for the war, he said the next phase would be lower-intensity fighting against “pockets of resistance” and would require Israeli troops to maintain their freedom of operation.
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