JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects any form of Palestinian sovereignty in the postwar Gaza Strip, his office said Saturday, appearing to reject U.S. President Joe Biden's suggestion that creative solutions fill wide gaps between the views of the Gaza Strip Leaders could conclude on Palestinian statehood.
In a sign of the pressure Netanyahu's government is facing at home and abroad, a protest grew outside the prime minister's home as people joined a group representing families of the more than 100 remaining hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups were detained.
The families want the government to take bold steps to release the hostages, fearing that Israel's military activity in Gaza will further endanger their lives.
Jewish women sing together as they attend the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023 in Re'im, southern Israel, near the Israel-Gaza border, on Friday, January 19, the site where hundreds of revelers from the Hamas were killed or captured, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Netanyahu is also under pressure to appease members of his right-wing ruling coalition by intensifying the war against Hamas, which rules Gaza, while dealing with calls for restraint from the United States, its closest ally.
The statement from the prime minister's office said Netanyahu made clear on Friday in his first conversation with Biden in nearly a month that his position on a postwar Gaza had not changed. Netanyahu reiterated that Israel must retain security control of the area after the destruction of Hamas – “a demand that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty,” the statement said.
Regarding his administration's position, Biden said on Friday: “There are different types of two-state solutions.” There are a number of countries that are members of the United Nations and do not yet have their own army.” When asked whether a two -State solution was impossible with Netanyahu in office, Biden replied: “No, that is not the case.”
On Saturday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “The refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people are unacceptable.” In Uganda, he said the refusal would Conflict “prolonged indefinitely”.
Netanyahu said Israel must fight until it achieves a “complete victory” and Hamas no longer poses a threat, but has not spelled out how this will be achieved.
But a member of Israel's war cabinet, former Israeli army chief Gadi Eisenkot, described a ceasefire as the only way to ensure the release of the hostages, a comment that implied criticism of Israel's current strategy.
Critics accused Netanyahu of preventing a cabinet-level debate on a post-war scenario for Gaza. They say he is hesitating to avoid conflict within his coalition.
Israel began its war against Hamas after the militant group's unprecedented attack on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 others hostage in Israel. Health authorities in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip say the Israeli offensive has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
The offensive, one of the most destructive military campaigns in recent history, has pulverized much of the territory and displaced more than 80% of the country's 2.3 million residents. An Israeli blockade that allows only a fraction of aid flows into Gaza has led to widespread hunger and disease outbreaks, United Nations officials said.
Eli Shtivi, whose 28-year-old son Idan has been held in Gaza since his abduction from the Supernova music festival on October 7, is hugged by a woman outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence in Caesarea. Israel, Saturday, January 20, 2024. Shtivi has begun a hunger strike to protest the government's lack of visible progress on a new hostage-taking deal. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Netanyahu has insisted that the only way to ensure the return of the hostages is to dismantle Hamas through military means. More than 100 hostages, mostly women and children, were released during a brief ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and minors detained by Israel. Israel says there are more than 130 hostages still in the Gaza Strip, but only about 100 are believed to be alive.
The protest outside Netanyahu's home in the coastal city of Caesarea grew, with some of them being pushed away by police, leading to clashes.
“We can’t take it anymore. We were told to stay calm and let the government do its job. Well, it hasn't given us any result in the last two months,” said Yuval Bar On, whose father-in-law Keith Siegel is among the hostages.
The protest began on Friday when the father of a 28-year-old held by Hamas began a so-called hunger strike. Eli Shtivi promised to eat only a quarter of pita a day – the amount some hostages were reportedly given for a few days – until the prime minister agreed to meet with him.
Hundreds of anti-war demonstrators gathered in the Israeli city of Haifa to protest Israel's offensive. They carried signs reading “Stop the Genocide” and scuffled with police who tried to confiscate the posters. The police made an arrest.
As part of the search for the hostages, the Israeli military dropped leaflets over Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city. The leaflets, with photos of dozens of hostages, contained a message suggesting benefits for anyone who spoke out.
“You want to return home? Please report if you have identified any of them,” the message said.
Hours later, Al-Majd al-Amni, a media outlet linked to Hamas' internal security forces, warned Palestinians against sharing information about Israeli soldiers being held hostage in Gaza.
The war has spread across the Middle East, with Iranian-backed groups attacking U.S. and Israeli targets. Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon threatens to erupt into all-out war, and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are attacking international ships in the Red Sea despite US-led airstrikes.
On Saturday, an Israeli attack on the Syrian capital destroyed a building belonging to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and killed at least four Iranians, Syrian and Iranian state media reported. Also on Saturday, two people were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a car near the Lebanese port city of Tyre, the state-run National News Agency reported. It was not immediately clear who the target was.
In Gaza, residents reached by telephone after a seven-day communications blackout reported heavy bombing and fighting between militants and Israeli troops in and around the southern city of Khan Younis and the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in the north.
Palestinians walk through the destruction caused by Israeli bombardment in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Friday, January 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
Halima Abdel-Rahman, a displaced woman from the northern Gaza Strip who has been seeking refuge in Bani Suheila on the outskirts of Khan Younis since November, said there had been heavy bombing overnight. The fighting had forced many families to abandon their homes, many of which had been reduced to rubble, she said.
A car was apparently hit by a drone in Rafah, killing four people, according to an Associated Press cameraman at a local mortuary. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Meanwhile, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, mourners gathered for the funeral of Tawfiq Ajaq, a 17-year-old American Palestinian who was shot dead near Ramallah a day earlier.
The circumstances of the shooting remained unclear and police said the incident was under investigation. The teenager's father, Hafez Ajaq, expressed anger at the US government, which has provided diplomatic and military support to Israel.
In recent months, the Biden administration has repeatedly expressed concern about increasing volatility in the West Bank.
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Jon Gambrell in Jerusalem and Najib Jobain in Rafah, Gaza Strip contributed to this report.
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