Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday (Jan 27) that Israel would shift its focus to disarming Hamas and demilitarising Gaza following the return of the last hostage from the Palestinian territory.
He further said that no reconstruction work would take place in Gaza until those two missions were accomplished.
Netanyahu also vowed to block the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza, insisting Israel would maintain security control over both it and the occupied West Bank, despite widening international recognition of Palestinian statehood.
The US-sponsored Gaza ceasefire plan, in effect since Oct 10, stipulated the return of all the hostages held in the territory under its first phase, and Hamas’s disarmament under the second.
“Now we are focused on completing the two remaining tasks: disarming Hamas and demilitarising Gaza of weapons and tunnels,” Netanyahu said during a televised press conference.
“It will be done the easy way or it will be done the hard way. But in any case it will happen.
“I’m hearing even now claims that Gaza’s reconstruction will be allowed before demilitarisation – this will not happen,” Netanyahu said.
Militants took 251 hostages during the Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war. Israeli forces on Monday brought home the remains of the last captive, Ran Gvili.
Though Hamas said the return of Gvili’s body showed its commitment to the ceasefire deal, it has so far not surrendered its weapons.
The group has repeatedly said disarmament is a red line, but it has also suggested it would be open to handing over its weapons to a Palestinian governing authority.
In his remarks Tuesday, Netanyahu said that the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza “hasn’t happened and it will not happen”, claiming credit for having “repeatedly blocked” the implementation of a two-state paradigm.
The war in Gaza, which has left much of the territory in ruins, accelerated international calls for Palestinian statehood, with several Western countries last year taking the step of formally recognising a Palestinian state.
But Netanyahu insisted that Israel would continue to “exercise security control from the Jordan (River) to the sea, and that applies to the Gaza Strip as well”.
“GRAVE MISTAKE”
The premier also alluded to US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks on Iran, which he has previously threatened to attack over its deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.
The US has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group to the region, prompting warnings from Iran that it would not hesitate to defend itself.
“President Trump will decide what he decides; the State of Israel will decide what it decides,” Netanyahu said.
But, he added, “if Iran makes the grave mistake of attacking Israel, we will respond with a force that Iran has never seen”.
Trump told the Axios news site on Monday that the US had “a big armada next to Iran”, but that he believed talks were still an option.
“They want to make a deal. I know so. They called on numerous occasions,” he said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian hit out at US “threats” in a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday, saying they were “aimed at disrupting the security of the region”.
