(Al Jazeera Media Network) In an interview with Fox News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel intends to take control of the entire Gaza Strip, but does not want to govern it.
His comments came on Thursday shortly before Israel’s cabinet meets to consider his proposal to take over the Strip.
“We intend to [take over] in order to ensure our security, remove Hamas [from] there … and to pass it to civilian governance that is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel,” he said.
Netanyahu said in the interview that Israel wants a security perimeter, and wants to hand Gaza over to Arab forces to govern the territory.
“We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter. We don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body.”
Hamas said in a statement that the remarks constituted “a coup” amid the Gaza ceasefire negotiations.
Netanyahu’s plans to expand Israel’s Gaza offensive show his aim is to sacrifice Israel’s own captives to serve his personal interests, Hamas added in its statement.
As the Israeli security cabinet meeting kicked off, hundreds rallied near the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, where they called for a deal to release the captives.
