Nov. 7 (UPI) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected calls for a cease-fire in fighting with Hamas as the war has spanned a month.
Netanyahu told ABC News in an interview Monday night that Israel would not agree to a cease-fire saying it would “hamper the war effort” and efforts to get Hamas to release hostages taken in the Oct. 7 surprise attack, saying “the only thing that works on these criminals in Hamas is the military pressure that we’re exerting.”
“There’ll be no cease-fire, general cease-fire in Gaza without the release of our hostages,” he said. “As far as tactical little pauses, an hour here, an hour there. We’ve had them before, I suppose, will check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages to leave. But I don’t think there’s going to be a general cease-fire.”
On Monday morning, Israel announced a four-hour pause to allow civilians to safely evacuate to the southern end of Gaza.
Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden had also discussed the possibility of “tactical pauses” on Monday but the White House said Biden was not able to persuade Biden to agree.
When asked who should govern Gaza after the conflict, Netanyahu said he believed Israel would have a responsibility in the region for an “indefinite period.”
“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,” Netanyahu said. “When we don’t have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.”
Biden has previously said it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza, and Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said last month that one key objective of Israel’s military campaign was to sever “Israel’s responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip” and establish a “new security reality for the citizens of Israel.”
The U.S. has also said the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, could oversee Gaza while others have suggested a consortium of Arab states could do the job collectively.
U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said no matter who takes charge, Hamas can’t be in control of Gaza anymore.
“We are having conversations with our Israeli counterparts about what governance in Gaza should look like post-conflict and I don’t believe that any solutions have been settled upon one way or the other,” Kirby said.
Despite calls for a humanitarian cease-fire, the violence has continued unabated with deadly and disastrous consequences. The U.N. chief said Gaza is “becoming a graveyard for children.”
