Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised that will prevent any type of influence from the Palestinian Authority (ANP) on the Gaza Strip when the military operation against the enclave and the Islamist movement Hamas ends, understanding that both entities are united in his commitment to destroy the State of Israel. “I will not allow the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza” after the war, Netanyahu has assured.

“The Palestinian movement may be split in two“, Netanyahu said in his press appearance last Saturday, and added: “But, unfortunately for me, the rejection of the existence of Israel is a common element between both factions, so I am not going to make the mistake of putting to that entity in charge of Gaza because we are going to end up with the same result,” he indicated in relation to the Palestinian Authority. “Are we going to reinstate in Gaza the same entity that has not been reformed? Is that what our best friends are advising us? “I think differently,” he added.

This position clashes with the United States, Israel’s main partner and defender of the creation of a Palestinian state, which has advocated the unification of Gaza and the West Bank under the ANP government once the war ends. The North American country also joins increasingly strong international pressure for a ceasefire in the war against Hamas, which began on October 7 and continues to cause deaths, injuries and displacement in the Gaza Strip. “We are certainly feeling international pressureI will not deny it, but since the war began I have created international space against this pressure, I speak with dozens of leaders every day (…) We do not always agree, but at the end of the day it is our war, we are the ones who decide “Netanyahu stressed.

The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, has defended that “Israel has a legitimate military objective against Hamas“, although he has reproached the Israeli authorities for “They must do more to protect civilians“. The vice president has condemned “the magnitude of civil suffering” in Gaza and has described as “devastating” the images coming from the region, recalling that “as long as Israel defends itself, it matters how.” In this regard, the vice president has asked that ” International Humanitarian Law must be respected in the Gaza war.” “Too many innocent Palestinians have been murdered,” lamented the American in statements reported by ‘Bloomberg’. Finallyhas repeated that the United States longs “to see a unified Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority“, which must be strengthened to assume this responsibility.

The future of Gaza (and Palestine), an unknown

Gaza’s medium-term political future still remains unclear. Israel, for the moment, is contemplating the establishment of a security zone within the enclave but the United States, its great ally, has already stated that it does not agree with this plan because, as the spokesman for the National Security Council, John Kirby, advanced, “Gaza must remain Palestinian land and cannot be reduced“.

Official Israeli sources on condition of anonymity have explained to the ‘Times of Israel’ that this plan is still on the table. “Hamas cannot accumulate military capabilities on the border again and surprise us again,” they indicated before clarifying that “this is strictly a security measure, not a political one” and guaranteeing that there will be no Israeli military on the side. border gazati.

Whatever the scenario, Netanyahu assures that the Palestinian Authority will play no role. “They are people who pay murderers and who educate their children to hate Israel, to murder Jews and, ultimately, to make the State of Israel disappear,” said the prime minister, before criticizing the Palestinian Authority. as “a defective mechanism and a terrible mistake.” “I am not going to deceive myself and allow the same element to govern Gaza, one that has expressed neither a desire for change nor a desire for reform, no matter how much our best friends propose it. The internal government of Gaza must undergo a radical process different,” he concluded.

In contrast, the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has responded to the prime minister’s words by framing the entire Israeli military operation as an effort to consolidate the total separation that exists between Gaza and the West Bank, thus literally breaking in two the efforts to “materialize an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital“. “Netanyahu and his war cabinet continue to beat the war drums under false pretenses and pretexts, repeating like a broken record its unjustified attacks on the Palestinian National Authority and its leaders,” the Ministry lamented in a statement published on the social network X.

The Palestinian Authority understands this “an attempt to establish separation between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to attack and undermine the opportunity embodied in the independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.