Netanyahu plans to maintain Israeli ‘security control’ of Gaza

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of the Israeli regime, says Tel Aviv will maintain “security control” of Gaza, refusing to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“Israel will maintain security control over the entire area from the Jordan River to the sea, and that applies to the Gaza Strip as well,” Netanyahu said late on Tuesday, adding that a Palestinian state “will not happen.”

“Now we are focusing on completing the two remaining missions: dismantling Hamas’s weapons and demilitarizing Gaza of arms and tunnels,” he said.

“As I agreed with [US] President [Donald] Trump … there are only two possibilities: either this will be done the easy way, or it will be done the hard way, but in any case, it will happen. I am already hearing the statements that we will allow Gaza’s reconstruction before demilitarization. That will not happen,” he added.

As he delayed the opening of the Rafah border crossing despite the October ceasefire, Netanyahu claimed that it will “open in both directions” soon.

Tel Aviv recently conditioned the crossing’s opening on the recovery of the last dead captive, whose corpse was found on Monday.

“There will be no open access – it is not going to be opened for goods … People go out, people come in – but they are checked, thoroughly checked [by Israel].”

A recent Reuters report said Israel is working to make sure that people exiting via the Rafah crossing are greater in number than those entering, in an effort to facilitate the ethnic cleansing of the strip.

A recent Hebrew media report also said Tel Aviv is planning to “collapse” the ceasefire agreement and launch a series of violent attacks on northern Gaza.

According to the report, Israel is preparing for a new round of fighting with Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades.

Hamas says it fulfilled all its obligations under Gaza ceasefire deal

A senior Hamas official says the resistance movement has fulfilled all its obligations under the Gaza ceasefire agreement after delivering the body of the last Israeli captive in the territory.

Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

According to the Gaza-based Health Ministry, at least 71,657 Palestinians have been killed and 171,399 others wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza.

Last year, a fragile ceasefire deal, brokered by the United States, was reached in the strip. Since the truce was reached in early October, Israel has killed over 490 Palestinians.

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