Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that Israel will control the entire Gaza Strip after its latest offensive, setting out maximalist conditions for ending the devastating war on the besieged Palestinian enclave. Netanyahu’s conditions include the release of all captives, the disarmament of Hamas, the exile of its leadership, and the possibility of implementing a plan outlined by US President Donald Trump in February. Trump’s plan, which has been criticized as ethnic cleansing, would expel Palestinians from Gaza and have the US run the territory, transforming it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Netanyahu’s comments came as hundreds of Palestinians were killed in relentless Israeli bombardments across Gaza, with at least 82 killed since dawn on Wednesday. The Israeli leader also said that if “there is an opportunity for a temporary ceasefire and hostage exchange deal, Israel will be open to it.” However, critics argue that Netanyahu’s words are a “smokescreen to pretend the siege is over” while keeping Palestinians “barely surviving.”
The UN chief’s spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, noted that the limited supplies allowed into Gaza are “nowhere near enough to meet the needs,” with more than 93% of children in Gaza, or about 930,000, on the brink of famine. Doctors Without Borders’ emergency coordinator in Khan Younis, Pascale Coissard, said the Israeli authorities’ decision to allow a “ridiculously inadequate amount of aid into Gaza” signals their intention to keep Palestinians barely surviving.
Opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Yair Golan swiftly reacted to Netanyahu’s news conference, with Lapid saying Netanyahu’s words mean the occupation of Gaza for many years and Golan calling Netanyahu a “pressured, obsessed, lying man who takes no responsibility for anything.”
The demand though not new to world leaders has sparked outrage from many states and world leaders who feel that Israel has decimated the Gaza strip completely and should be sorry for human casualties and the reprehensible conditions the people in Gaza had been subjected to.