Israel to take ‘overall security responsibility' in Gaza - PM Netanyahu

(AP) — Israel will take “overall security responsibility” in Gaza indefinitely after its war with Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.

It is the clearest indication yet that Israel plans to maintain control there one month into a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.

In an interview with US network ABC News that aired late Monday, Netanyahu expressed openness to “little pauses” in the fighting to facilitate delivery of aid to Gaza or the release of some of the more than 240 hostages seized by Hamas in its October 7 attack into Israel that triggered the war.

But he ruled out any general cease-fire without the release of all the hostages. The White House said there was no agreement on US President Joe Biden's call for a broader humanitarian pause after a phone call between the leaders.

The war has already come at a staggering cost, and Israel unleashed another wave of strikes across the territory Tuesday.

Entire city blocks have been reduced to rubble, and around 70 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million people have fled their homes, with many heeding Israeli orders to head to the southern part of the besieged territory, which is also being bombed.

Israeli troops have been battling Palestinian militants inside Gaza for over a week, and have succeeded in cutting the territory in half and encircling Gaza City. Food, medicine, fuel and water are running low, and United Nations-run schools-turned-shelters are overflowing.

The Palestinian death toll has surpassed 10,300, two-thirds of them women and minors, according to the Health Ministry of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. More than 2,300 people are missing and believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings, the ministry said. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and Israel says it has killed thousands of fighters.

About 1,400 people in Israel have died, mostly civilians killed during the October incursion by Hamas. Israelis observed a moment of silence Tuesday in memory of the victims. The 30th day is a milestone in Jewish mourning, and memorial events are planned in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The military says 30 Israeli troops have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.

Israel has vowed to remove Hamas from power and crush its military capabilities — but neither Israel nor its main ally, the United States, has said what would come next.

Netanyahu told ABC News that Gaza should be governed by “those who don't want to continue the way of Hamas,” without elaborating.

“I think Israel will, for an indefinite period, will have the overall security responsibility because we've seen what happens when we don't have it. When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn't imagine,” he said.

Netanyahu dd not make clear what shape that security control would take. U.S. officials have advised that Israel should not re-occupy Gaza. Israel withdrew troops and settlers in 2005 but kept control over Gaza's airspace, coastline, population registry and border crossings, excepting one into Egypt.

Hamas seized power from forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, confining his Palestinian Authority to parts of the occupied West Bank. Since then, Israel and Egypt have imposed a blockade on Gaza to varying degrees.

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