Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that under no circumstances would Israel allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) to govern Gaza.
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Speaking at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the prime minister said that Israel would oversee security matters in the Palestinian enclave after the war.
Netanyahu said that the number of deaths resulting from the Hamas attack on October 7 was equivalent to those caused by the Oslo Accords, a series of interim peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinians from the 1990s that led to the creation of the PA. The conservative leader described the agreements as "a mistake."
Merav Michaeli, an opposition lawmaker and leader of the center-left Labor Party, criticized Netanyahu for what she described as his government's lack of vision for the day after the war.
"Without a political vision, the Gulf nations will not come to rehabilitate Gaza and maintain it in the interim," she said, lambasting the prime minister for his rejection of a Palestinian state while not offering an alternative.
Netanyahu pushed back on some committee members who questioned the focus on Hamas, an Iranian proxy, was diverting attention from the threat posed by Tehran.
"For me, there is no diversion of attention on this matter - the Iranian regime needs to be dealt with, and beyond that, I won't elaborate here," he said. "If Iran becomes armed with nuclear weapons, it will be a long-term problem for Israel. Our commitment to this should primarily be national - we cannot compromise on this."
Netanyahu also described his in-depth conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, noting the problematic nature of Russia's ties with Iran. He emphasized this concern during their extensive phone call on Monday.
Additionally, he mentioned the importance of maintaining the military coordination between Jerusalem and Moscow in Syria, expressing confidence that it was not compromised. He also expressed gratitude to President Putin for his role in facilitating the release of Roni Kriboy, a 25-year-old Israeli with dual Russian citizenship. Kriboy, along with 13 others, was freed from Hamas captivity last month.