Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will have "overall security responsibility" in Gaza for an indefinite period after its war with Hamas, the clearest indication yet that Israel plans to maintain control over the coastal enclave that is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians.
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In an interview with ABC News that aired late Monday, Netanyahu expressed openness to "little pauses" in the fighting to facilitate the release of some of the more than 240 captives seized by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack into Israel, which triggered the war exactly one month ago.
But he ruled out any general ceasefire without the release of all the hostages, and the White House said there was no agreement with United States President Joe Biden's call for a broader humanitarian pause after a phone call between the leaders on Monday.
Israeli troops have been battling Palestinian terrorists inside Gaza for over a week, and have succeeded in cutting the territory in half and encircling Gaza City.
The war has come at a staggering cost. Airstrikes have leveled entire city blocks across the territory, and around 70% of the population has fled their homes, with many heeding Israeli orders to head to the southern part of the besieged territory, which is also being bombed. Food, medicine, fuel, and water are running low, and United Nations-run schools-turned-shelters are overflowing.
About 1,400 people in Israel were murdered, mostly civilians killed in the Oct. 7 invasion by Hamas that started the war. Israel has vowed to remove Hamas from power and crush its military capabilities.
Israel is focused on Gaza City, which before the war was home to some 650,000 people – about equal to the population of Washington, DC Israel says Hamas has extensive terrorist infrastructure in the city, including a vast tunnel network, and accuses it of using civilians as human shields.
Several hundred thousand people are believed to remain in the north in the assault's path. The military says a one-way corridor for residents of Gaza City and surrounding areas to flee south remains available. But many are afraid to use the route, part of which is held by Israeli troops.
Residents in northern Gaza reported heavy battles overnight into Tuesday morning in the outskirts of Gaza City. The Shati refugee camp, a built-up district housing refugees from the 1948 war and their descendants, has been heavily bombarded from the air and sea over the past two days, residents said.
A strike early Monday hit the roof of Shifa Hospital, killing a number of displaced people sheltering on its top floor and destroying solar panels, said Mohamed Zaqout, general manager of all hospitals in Gaza. The panels have been helping keep power on in the facility, which has been reduced to using one generator because of lack of fuel.
The war has also stoked wider tensions, with Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah terrorist group trading fire along the border.
Israeli officials have said little about their plans for a post-Hamas Gaza, while indicating they don't want to reoccupy the territory. Israel withdrew its troops and more than 8,000 Jewish settlers from Gaza in 2005 but maintained control over the territory's airspace, coastline, population registry, and all but one of its border crossings.
Hamas seized power from forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas two years later, confining his Palestinian Authority to parts of the West Bank.
Since then, Israel and Egypt have imposed a blockade on Gaza to varying degrees. Israel says the blockade is needed to keep Hamas from rearming.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who wrapped up a dayslong trip to the region on Monday, has suggested a revitalized Palestinian Authority could govern Gaza. But Abbas has said it would only do so as part of a solution to the conflict that establishes a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines.
Netanyahu told ABC News that Gaza should be governed by "those who don't want to continue the way of Hamas," without elaborating.
"I think Israel will, for an indefinite period, will have the overall security responsibility, because we've seen what happens when we don't have it. When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn't imagine," he said.
The military says 30 Israeli troops have been killed since the ground offensive began over a week ago. Hamas and other terrorists have continued firing rockets into Israel, disrupting daily life even as most are intercepted or fall in open areas. Tens of thousands of Israelis have evacuated from communities near the volatile borders with Gaza and Lebanon.
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