---

Netanyahu: ‘We are not going to occupy Gaza’

Charles Bybelezer

---

Israeli soldiers in Beit Hanoun, the northern Gaza Strip. Credit: IDF.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday reiterated that Israel has no intention of occupying the Gaza Strip, saying the expansion of the war is aimed at destroying Hamas and freeing the local population from its regime of terror.

“We are not going to occupy Gaza—we are going to free Gaza from Hamas,” said Netanyahu.

“Gaza will be demilitarized, and a peaceful civilian administration will be established, one that is not the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, and not any other terrorist organization,” he continued. “This will help free our hostages and ensure Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel in the future.”

The Israeli Security Cabinet overnight Thursday decided by a “decisive majority” to approve Netanyahu’s plan to defeat Hamas, including controlling Gaza City.

The Israel Defense Forces will prepare for “taking control of Gaza City, while distributing humanitarian assistance to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” the Prime Minister’s Office said on Friday.

The statement noted that the forum voted on five principles: disarming Hamas, returning all 50 hostages, demilitarizing Gaza, Israeli security control of the Strip and creating an alternative civil administration.

“Ultimately, what Israel needs to do for Israel’s security will be determined by Israel,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday, adding that as long as Hamas remains armed, there will never be peace in Gaza.

“Hamas is not going to suddenly change and go into another line of work,” said Rubio. “Their reason for existing is they want to destroy Israel. They want to drive every Jew out of the Middle East. That’s their goal. And as long as a group like that has weapons and the ability to fight, they’re a threat to peace.”

Earlier on Thursday, Netanyahu confirmed that Israel intends to take control of the entire enclave to eliminate Hamas and transfer authority to non-hostile “civilian governance.”

“We want to liberate ourselves and liberate the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas,” the prime minister told Fox News. He stressed that the Israeli government does not “want to keep it” after taking control of the 26-mile-long coastal enclave.

“We want to have a security perimeter,” Netanyahu said. “We don’t want to be there as a governing body. We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly, without threatening us, and giving Gazans a good life.”

The U.S. military is not a part of the newly announced plan, including taking Gaza City, Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon press secretary, told an Associated Press reporter during a Defense Department briefing on Thursday.

“I’ll just echo what the president has said. He wants to alleviate the suffering for the people of Gaza. He wants to see peace in the Middle East and in that region in particular,” Wilson said. “We are in full support of that. The department does not at this time have a direct role, but if we are asked to support, we of course stand ready at the president’s direction.”

U.S. Ambassador to Jerusalem Mike Huckabee said on Friday that Hamas needs to listen to exactly what President Donald Trump says, “they need to disarm, leave and never think they have a future in Gaza again.”

Describing Hamas’s position as “absurd,” the envoy noted that “these are the people that raped women in front of their families, that beheaded babies and put them in ovens, that mutilated the bodies of their victims” during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

“They have the audacity to think that anyone is to blame but them,” Huckabee continued. “It’s why, frankly, Israel has made the decision they’ve made. They cannot let this continue to go on. We saw the videos last weekend of hostages—you want to talk about starvation and hunger, the hostages are starving.

“It’s a tough situation and Israel did not start it, but it looks like they’re the only ones who are going to be able to finish it,” he said.

---

---