Israel does not want to occupy or annex Gaza: PM Netanyahu
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Israel doesn't want to annex or occupy Gaza and its sole aim is to destroy Hamas and hand over the strip to a transitory government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.The prime minister also said that Israel wants to take control of Gaza's security after ending the war as soon as possible.In an interaction with a group of visiting Indian journalists, Netanyahu said over two million tonnes of food were sent to Gaza, but the supplies were "interdicted".The Israeli prime minister's comments came amid increasing international criticism of his government over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as an estimated 60,000 people were killed in the Israeli military offensive in the last 22 months.Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023, killed about 1,200 people. Hamas also took 251 people as hostages."Our plan is not to occupy or annex Gaza. Our goal is to destroy Hamas and get our hostages back, and then hand over Gaza to a transitory government," Netanyahu said."We will never hand it (Gaza) over to the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. We will provide overall security. There will be a security perimeter provided by us," he said."We want to end the war very soon. It will be over speedily. If Hamas concedes and lays down their arms and frees hostages, it will be over tomorrow. Even Palestinians in Gaza are fighting Hamas," the Israeli prime minister said.Netanyahu said Israel wants to make Gaza a "de-militarised" zone."We are looking at ending the war very soon. We are focusing on winning the war," he said.Israel is also facing increasing international pressure on the scarcity of food and medicine in Gaza. However, Netanyahu rejected the criticism."We have supplied over 2 million tonnes of food. However, the supplies were interdicted. We let thousands of trucks carrying food go to Gaza," he claimed."I decided to open up the transit routes for aid trucks. The problem has been with the distribution. Hamas caused the humanitarian crisis."To a question, Netanyahu said he would like to come to India soon.There is a huge scope to expand India-Israel cooperation, including in areas of intelligence sharing, countering terrorism, he said.On US President Donald Trump imposing a 50 per cent tariff on India, he said it will be of interest to both countries to resolve the tariff issue.
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