09:20     12 November 2023    

Israel plans to retain security control in the Gaza Strip after its military operation there, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "As for all the talk about 'the day after,' that day will only come after Hamas is eradicated. Gaza will be demilitarized and there will no longer be a threat to Israel from the Gaza Strip," he said at a news conference. He added that Israeli forces will reserve the right to act to stop any threats to Israel from the enclave. "In order to guarantee that there will be no threat, at any time, if necessary, the Israel Defense Forces will continue to exercise security control in the Gaza Strip, guaranteeing that terrorism will not come from there, because the October 7 massacre proved forever that wherever there is no Israeli control, terrorism takes root and strikes us. This was also proven in Judea and Samaria (the Israeli names for the West Bank - TASS), which is why I will not compromise security control under any condition," the prime minister went on to say. When asked who will exercise civilian control in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu said there should be no radicals in power there. "I want to emphasize again that security control implies the ability [for Israeli forces] to go in whenever we want to eliminate terrorists who might pop up again and start threatening Israel. I will tell you what there will not be. There will not be Hamas. There will also not be a civil authority that educates its children to hate Israel, to kill Israelis, to eliminate the State of Israel," he said. The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and hostage taking. Hamas has cast the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and has started delivering strikes on that area and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.