Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will have “overall security responsibility” in Gaza “indefinitely” after its war with Hamas.
Netanyahu also expressed openness to “little pauses” in the current fight, to facilitate the release of hostages.
His comments, in an interview that aired, late Monday on ABC News, offered the clearest indication yet that Israel plans to maintain control over the territory that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians.
Netanyahu ruled out any general cease-fire without the release of over 240 captives in custody of Hamas freedom fighters in its Oct. 7 raid into Israel.
The Israeli leader, however, said he was open to “tactical little pauses”.
U.S. President Joe Biden had raised the need for humanitarian pauses directly with Netanyahu on a call earlier Monday.
But there was no agreement reached”, the White House said.
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The Palestinian death toll in the war surpassed 10,300, including more than 4,200 children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
Hundreds more Palestinians fled Gaza City to the south on Tuesday.
Some arrived on donkey carts, most on foot, a few pushing aged relatives in wheelchairs. All of them looked visibly exhausted. And many of them have nothing but their clothes on their back.
In the occupied West Bank, more than 140 Palestinians have died in the Israeli raids.
The Israeli Defence Force said more than 1,400 people in Israel have died, most of them in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
IDF also claimed that the Hamas fighters had taken 242 Israeli soldiers hostage. (AP News)
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