A month after the massacre carried out by the Islamic group Hamas in Israel, Israeli forces advanced deep into the Gaza Strip. Ground troops are already positioned in Gaza City and are increasing pressure there, army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Monday night. Israel’s stated objective is to destroy Hamas, which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007.
Immediately after the start of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu prepared Israel for a “long and hard war” – Netanyahu has now told US broadcaster ABC News that even after the Gaza war, Israel “will assume full responsibility for the security of an indefinite period of time (…) will take place”. Otherwise, there would be a “Hamas terror outbreak” on an unimaginable scale, Netanyahu said: “We have seen what happens when we don’t have it (responsibility, he notes).”
Israel will take control of Gaza
Israel will maintain responsibility for security in the Gaza Strip indefinitely, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We’ve seen what happens when we don’t have them,” Netanyahu said in an interview with US broadcaster ABC.
“A certain responsibility”
In this context, Netanyahu also acknowledged, according to ABC News, “that he bears some responsibility for the intelligence failure that led his country to be surprised by the Hamas attack on October 7”.
Hundreds of Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7 and committed atrocities against civilians in several cities and at a music festival. According to Israeli data, around 1,400 people were killed and more than 240 were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.
In response to the Hamas attack, Israel launched air strikes on the densely populated Gaza Strip and launched a ground offensive. According to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in the region, more than 10,000 people have already been killed, including more than 4,000 children.
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UN sees “crisis of humanity”
Release of hostages as a condition for ceasefire
According to Netanyahu, for now there will be no general ceasefire, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently called for again. According to Netanyahu, this would contradict Israel’s war objectives. “That would harm our efforts to free our hostages, because the only thing these Hamas criminals understand is the military pressure we exert,” he said in the ABC interview.
However, Israel is still prepared to take “tactical pauses”. “An hour here, an hour there”, as far as this is concerned, they will continue to “examine the circumstances” to “bring in humanitarian goods and remove individual hostages”.
Telephone conversation with US President Biden
Immediately earlier, Netanyahu had spoken to US President Joe Biden about a temporary ceasefire. They discussed the possibility of “tactical pauses” to allow civilians to leave combat areas, to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of the Gaza Strip and to allow for the release of additional hostages, the White House said after Monday’s call. .
The United States and Israel will remain in contact about these temporary disruptions for humanitarian reasons and possible hostage rescues, White House spokesman John Kirby said. The two heads of government agreed to continue negotiations in the coming days.
“Think beyond the day”
The future of the Gaza Strip after the end of the war is also a central topic at the G-7 foreign ministers’ meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday in Tokyo. It is about “thinking beyond the day, for example discussing practical measures for a two-state solution”, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock before her departure for Japan.
The leader of the Israeli opposition, Jair Lapid, recently spoke out in favor of the Palestinian Authority regaining control of the region after the war in Gaza. The former head of government told the German “Welt” on Monday: “My exit strategy is different from that of the government.” President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority should be brought back there.
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Hamas: terrorist organization and sole ruler of Gaza
Israel’s army withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Islamist Hamas won parliamentary elections the following year. In 2007, it forcibly took exclusive control of the Gaza Strip. Abbas’s Fatah forces largely expelled them.
Abbas sets conditions
Lapid said that although there are few authority representatives left in Gaza, it still has infrastructure. Referring to Abbas’ support in the West Bank, Lapid said the situation in cities such as Jenin and Nablus was “less under control than one would like.” Things work better in other parts of the West Bank, Lapid said. “Among bad choices, this is the least terrible.”
In a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday, Abbas expressed a willingness to take “full responsibility” for the Gaza Strip, but only as part of a “package” with a comprehensive political solution also for the West Bank and Jerusalem. Eastern. Palestinians claim these areas for their own state.