Israel-Hamas war live: Israeli forces still at al-Shifa; Biden backs raid
In an interview with the Financial Times, the president has said Israel will have to have a “very strong” force in Gaza once it defeats Hamas to prevent the group from running the besieged enclave again.
“If we pull back, then who will take over? We can’t leave a vacuum. We have to think about what will be the mechanism; there are many ideas that are thrown in the air,” Isaac Herzog, who has no executive powers, told the British publication.
“But no one will want to turn this place, Gaza, into a terror base again,” Herzog said.
Herzog’s comments follow remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has said Israel will have to maintain security control “as long as necessary” and ruled out any role for the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Gaza’s post-war governance. Some in his far-right government have even gone further, speaking about the need to re-establish illegal settlements like before the withdrawal of 2005.
Such remarks have been at odds with Israel’s strongest ally, the US, which has said the PA should be put in charge of the Strip once the conflict is over and repeatedly warned that Israel should not “reoccupy” Gaza.
Hamas, meanwhile, insists that “no one has the right to determine” the Palestinians’ “fate, future and interests”.
In a statement, the group said last week comments on talks about who would rule Gaza after the war are “rude and unacceptable as the free Palestinian people cannot accept any form of trusteeship”.