Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on Thursday that his plan is to militarily occupy the entirety of the Gaza Strip.
“Will Israel take control of all of Gaza?” Fox’s Bill Hemmer asked.
“We intend to, in order to 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 responded.
“We want to liberate ourselves and liberate the people of Gaza from the awful terror of Hamas. And you were in the Gaza Strip – you met Palestinians who are fighting Hamas,” he added, alluding to a tour the Israeli military provided Fox News on the border with Gaza. It was unclear whether Netanyahu was referring to the militia known as The Popular Forces, led by convicted drug trafficker Yasser Abu Shabab.Â
“[Palestinians] can rid themselves of this awful tyranny that not only holds our hostages, but holds 2 million Palestinians in Gaza hostage. That’s got to end,” Netanyahu said.
“Are you saying today that you will take control of the entire 26-mile Gaza Strip as it was 20 years ago this month in 2005?” Hemmer asked.
“Well, we don’t want to keep it,” Netanyahu said.
“We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it… We want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly without threatening us and giving Gazans a good life. That’s not possible with Hamas. The only way that you’re going to have a different future is to get rid of this neo-Nazi army,” he continued, before referencing several allegations about the 7 October 2023 attacks that have never been proven, including the “burning of babies” by Hamas.
“They are really cruel to their own people, because when we try to take them away from the combat zones, they shoot them,” he said. “They want people to be civilian casualties. They want a starvation policy that they themselves are trying to put into being, and we’re doing everything to reverse that”.Â
Some 200 Palestinians have been starved to death in Gaza ever since Israel closed all crossings and banned food, water, and medicines from entering the enclave in March.Â
More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed  – mostly in Israeli air strikes – since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel 22 months ago. Those attacks killed just under 1,200 people.
