JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday fended off criticism that he is not planning for a postwar reality in the Gaza Strip, saying it was impossible to prepare for any scenario in the embattled Palestinian enclave until Hamas is defeated.
Netanyahu has faced increasing pressure from critics at home and allies abroad, especially the United States, to present a plan for governance, security and rebuilding of Gaza.
He has indicated Israel seeks to maintain open-ended control over security affairs and rejected a role for the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. That position stands in contrast to the vision set forth by the Biden administration, which wants Palestinian governance in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank as a precursor to Palestinian statehood.
The debate over a postwar vision for Gaza comes as fighting has erupted again in places Israel had targeted in the early days of the war and said it had under control, as well as in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, which has sent hundreds of thousands fleeing.
For Palestinians, that displacement has renewed painful memories of mass expulsion from what is now Israel in the war surrounding the country’s creation in 1948. Palestinians across the Middle East on Wednesday were marking the 76th anniversary of that event.
The latest war began on Oct. 7 with Hamas’ rampage across southern Israel, through some of the same areas where Palestinians fled from their villages decades earlier. Palestinian militants killed some 1.200 people that day, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostage.
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