President Joe Biden "believes that a reoccupation of Gaza by Israeli forces is not good" after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed his country "will have the overall security responsibility" in the besieged enclave once the war ends "for an indefinite period".
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stated, “The President still believes that a reoccupation of Gaza by Israeli forces is not good. It’s not good for Israel; not good for the Israeli people.
“One of the conversations that Secretary (Antony) Blinken has been having in the region is what does post-conflict Gaza look like? What does governance look like in Gaza? Because whatever it is it can’t be what it was on October 6. It can’t be Hamas."
Kirby's comments followed a statement made by Netanyahu in an interview with ABC News, where the Israeli Prime Minister expressed his belief that Israel would have an enduring role to fulfill even after the ongoing conflict subsides.
"Those who don't want to continue the way of Hamas... It certainly is not -- I think Israel will, for an indefinite period will have the overall security responsibility because we've seen what happens when we don't have it.
"When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn't imagine," he told ABC News.
In the preceding month, President Biden had emphasized that it would be a significant error for Israel to establish a lasting presence in Gaza.
In the meantime, when addressing reporters on Tuesday, the President disclosed that he had not yet had an opportunity to engage in a conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu. However, during their discussion on Monday, he did request Netanyahu to contemplate a humanitarian ceasefire.
“I didn’t get a chance to talk to him today. I did ask him for a pause in the past – yesterday. I’m still waiting to hear from other people,” CNN quoted Biden as saying.
Israeli government officials have not issued a statement regarding the governance of Gaza in the event that the Hamas militant group is eliminated from the enclave.On Tuesday, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said that Israel will “retain complete freedom of action to respond to any situation in the Gaza Strip” once the war ends.
“At the end of this ‘campaign’ Hamas, as a military organisation or governing body in Gaza, will cease to exist,” he asserted.
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Netanyahu, emphasized that “not talking about any sort of ongoing occupation of the Gaza Strip”.
“When this is over and we have defeated Hamas, it is crucial that there won’t be a resurgent terrorist element, a resurgent Hamas. There is no point doing this and just going back to square one.
Regev further clarified, "There will have to be an Israeli security presence, but that doesn't mean Israel is re-occupying Gaza, that doesn't mean that Israel is there to govern the Gazans," during his CNN interview.
(With Agency Inputs)
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