Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said his country will forge ahead on its plan to take over all of Gaza, despite widespread opposition — but added that he doesn’t “want to keep it” and pledged to “hand it over to Arab forces.”
“We intend to [take over all of Gaza] assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza and to pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News.
The latter distinction would likely mean a country subscribing to Trump’s Abraham Accords would be selected by the Jewish state.
President Trump has not explicitly given Israel the go ahead to take over the war-torn enclave, Netanyahu said — but the country doesn’t need the US’ permission to do so.
“He understands it’s Israel who’s doing the fighting — it’s not American soldier,” he said. “He just says, ‘I know Israel will do what it has to do.’”
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