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The US has warned Israel that reoccupying the Gaza Strip is “not the right thing to do” after Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country would maintain an indefinite grip over the territory after its war with Hamas.
John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesperson, said the US was in “active discussions with our Israeli counterparts about what post-conflict Gaza looks like” and that both countries agreed Hamas could not be part of the territory’s future.
But he added that President Joe Biden “maintains his position that reoccupation by Israeli forces is not the right thing to do”. Biden said in mid-October that it would be a “big mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza, the Mediterranean enclave from which it withdrew forces in 2005.
As Israel said its troops had entered Gaza City, a Hamas stronghold, US secretary of state Antony Blinken issued a similar warning following a meeting of the Group of Seven foreign ministers in Tokyo.
“It is imperative that the Palestinian people be central to the governance in Gaza and in the West Bank as well,” Blinken said. “What I’ve heard from Israeli leaders is that they have no intent to reoccupy Gaza and retake control of Gaza.”
The interventions by Kirby and Blinken came after Netanyahu told ABC News that “for an indefinite period, [Israel] will have the overall security responsibility” for Gaza. “We’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it,” he added. Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant has also stressed that neither Israel nor Hamas will rule Gaza after the war is over.
After the G7 meeting, UK foreign secretary James Cleverly said: “In the short term it is inevitable that Israel, because it has the troops in Gaza, will need to have a security responsibility. But our view is that as soon as practicable, a move towards a peace-loving Palestinian leadership is the most desired outcome.”
A number of disagreements have emerged between Israel and the US over the former’s conduct in the war, which it unleashed after Hamas rampaged through southern Israel a month ago, killing 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials.
Israel responded with an aerial and artillery bombardment of the enclave that has killed more than 10,300 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials.
The US has called for greater efforts to protect Palestinian civilians and urged Israel to take “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid into Gaza and to let foreign nationals — and potentially hostages — out.
G7 foreign ministers on Wednesday also urged a pause in fighting, highlighting the need for “urgent action” as they sought to project unity in their response to the conflict in Gaza.
“We confirmed the need to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, especially on the importance of humanitarian pauses and corridors to facilitate the humanitarian assistance,” Japan’s foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa said after hosting the meeting.
Blinken also stressed that there was “real unity” on whether a ceasefire was needed despite members of the G7 having differing views on how much pressure to apply on Israel. But Israel has been unmoved and repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire.
Israel said on Wednesday that its air strikes on Gaza had killed a senior Hamas weapons maker, whom it named as Mahsein Abu Zina. A day earlier, it said its troops had entered Gaza’s main city, which it sees as Hamas’s “centre of gravity”.
“[Israel Defense Forces] are in the heart of Gaza City,” Gallant said. “They came from the north and the south. They stormed it in full co-ordination between land, air and sea forces.”
Israel moved to the next stage of its assault on the strip in late October, launching a ground offensive in the north of the enclave and in particular Gaza City. Israel has urged Palestinian civilians to evacuate to the south.
But many Palestinians remain in the north and the UN has described the situation for hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza City and other areas as “increasingly dire”.
Gallant said Israeli forces were still pushing deeper into northern Gaza. “They have one target — Hamas terrorists in Gaza, their infrastructure, their commanders, bunkers, communication rooms,” Gallant said. “They are tightening the noose around Gaza City.”
In a televised address to soldiers on Tuesday, Netanyahu claimed that the month-long campaign had been an “extraordinary success”, though he referred to “problems” including drones, improvised explosive devices and anti-tank fire that had inflicted “very painful losses”.
“The success is phenomenal because we went in there and hit the enemy,” he said. “We do not intend to stop. We intend to continue to the end.”
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