Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel would shift its focus to disarming Hamas and demilitarising Gaza following the return of the last hostage from the Palestinian territory.
He added that no reconstruction work would take place in Gaza until those two objectives were achieved.
Netanyahu also vowed to block the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza, insisting Israel would maintain security control over both the territory and the occupied West Bank, despite widening international recognition of Palestinian statehood.
The US-sponsored Gaza ceasefire plan, in effect since October 10, stipulated the return of all hostages held in the territory under its first phase, and Hamas’s disarmament under the second.
“Now we are focused on completing the two remaining tasks: disarming Hamas and demilitarising Gaza of weapons and tunnels,” Netanyahu said during a televised press conference.
“It will be done the easy way or it will be done the hard way. But in any case it will happen.
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“I’m hearing even now claims that Gaza’s reconstruction will be allowed before demilitarisation – this will not happen,” he said.
Militants took 251 hostages during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war. Israeli forces on Monday brought home the remains of the last captive, Ran Gvili.
Though Hamas said the return of Gvili’s body showed its commitment to the ceasefire deal, it has so far not surrendered its weapons.
The group has repeatedly said disarmament is a red line, but has also suggested it would be open to handing over its weapons to a Palestinian governing authority.
In his remarks on Tuesday, Netanyahu said the establishment of a Palestinian state in Gaza “hasn’t happened and it will not happen”, claiming credit for having “repeatedly blocked” the implementation of a two-state paradigm.
The war in Gaza, which has left much of the territory in ruins, has accelerated international calls for Palestinian statehood, with several Western countries last year formally recognising a Palestinian state.
But Netanyahu insisted Israel would continue to “exercise security control from the Jordan River to the sea, and that applies to the Gaza Strip as well”.
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‘Grave mistake’
The premier also alluded to recent remarks by US President Donald Trump on Iran, which he has previously threatened to attack over its deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.
The United States has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group to the region, prompting warnings from Iran that it would not hesitate to defend itself.
“President Trump will decide what he decides; the State of Israel will decide what it decides,” Netanyahu said.
But, he added, “if Iran makes the grave mistake of attacking Israel, we will respond with a force that Iran has never seen”.
Trump told the Axios news site on Monday that the United States had “a big armada next to Iran”, but said he believed talks were still an option.
“They want to make a deal. I know so. They called on numerous occasions,” he said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian criticised US “threats” in a call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday, saying they were “aimed at disrupting the security of the region”.
Israel fought a 12-day war with Iran last June, striking military targets across the country and killing a number of the Islamic republic’s senior military leaders and nuclear scientists.
Iran responded with ballistic missile attacks targeting Israeli cities.
The United States briefly joined the conflict with strikes on key nuclear facilities before declaring a ceasefire.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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