Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday he wanted “total freedom of action” for his country in the Gaza Strip following the ongoing war in this Palestinian territory.
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“After eliminating the military and governmental power of Hamas in Gaza, Israel will exercise security control over Gaza with complete freedom of action,” he wrote on ) personal position.
Mr. Katz explained that governance of the Gaza Strip should be “exactly like Judea and Samaria,” the name Israel gives to the West Bank, the Palestinian territory it has occupied since 1967.
Future governance in Gaza has been the subject of speculation for months in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, as well as within the international community.
Mr. Katz’s predecessor, Yoav Gallant, was strongly opposed to any lasting Israeli control of the Gaza Strip after the war.
“I will not accept the establishment of an Israeli military administration in Gaza, Israel must not have civilian control over the Gaza Strip,” he declared in May while calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to make commitments in this direction.
In November, Mr. Netanyahu fired Mr. Gallant over differences over the conduct of the war in Gaza, and he appointed Mr. Katz, seen by many Israeli political commentators as much more likely to espouse the prime minister’s positions. .
The Israeli army occupied the Gaza Strip from 1967 until 2005, when it unilaterally withdrew, evacuating, sometimes by force, the Israeli settlers who had settled there.
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections, took power in Gaza in 2007, after months of clashes with other Palestinian political movements.
The current war was triggered on October 7, 2023 by an unprecedented attack by Hamas which led to the death of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures and including hostages who died or were killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
More than 45,028 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military campaign of retaliation on the Gaza Strip, the majority civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s Health Ministry for Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN.
