Senior White House spokesperson says the Biden administration does not support continued Israeli presence in Gaza after war’s end, after Netanyahu hints Israel will maintain security control ‘indefinitely.’
By David Rosenberg, World Israel News
A senior Biden administration spokesperson said Tuesday that the White House will not support Israel’s “reoccupation” of the Gaza Strip following the current war with Hamas.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby spoke with reporters at a press briefing Tuesday evening, fielding questions following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s interview with ABC in which he said that Israel must maintain security control over Gaza for an “indefinite” length of time.
“We have seen what happens when Israel does not have the security responsibility,” Netanyahu said Monday night. “When we do not have this security responsibility what we have is an eruption of Hamas terror on a scale we could not imagine.”
“I think Israel will, for an indefinite period will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it.”
In response, Kirby reiterated the Biden administration’s opposition to Israeli control of the Gaza Strip after the end of the current war with Hamas.
“President Biden has been very clear. We don’t support a reoccupation of Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces. We do think that there has to be a healthy set of conversations about what post-conflict Gaza looks like and what governance looks like.”
Kirby went on to say that the Biden White House agrees the status quo antebellum cannot be restored, he declined to specify what changes the administration believes can and should be made.
“What we absolutely agree with our Israeli counterparts on is what it can’t look like. And it can’t look like it did on October 6th.”
Late last month, an Israeli government document was leaked revealing plans for the possible transfer of Gaza’s population to Egypt.
The plan, which was drafted by the Intelligence Ministry as one of multiple possible options for the post-war future of the Gaza Strip, would see the enclave’s roughly two million residents moved into the northern Sinan Peninsula temporarily, before being relocated into the interior of Egypt, and potentially absorbed by other countries.