The White House stated on Tuesday, 7th November 2023, that the Israeli forces should not reoccupy Gaza after the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, commented that the country will have “overall security responsibility” in Gaza for an “indefinite period” when the war ends.

The White House warning comes after Netanyahu said on Monday, 6th November 2023, that Gaza should be governed by “those who do not want to continue the way of Hama. I think Israel will, for an indefinite period, have the overall security responsibility because we have seen what happens when we do not have it.”

It was one of the first hints Netanyahu has given about his vision for a post-war Gaza and suggests a divergent view from that of the US, including President Joe Biden’s statements about what the future of the strip would look like.

In an interview, Biden said it would be a “big mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza. At the time, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog, said that Israel did not intend to occupy Gaza after the conflict ends.

Biden further said that he hasn’t had a chance to speak with Netanyahu on Tuesday but he did ask the Israeli prime minister to consider a humanitarian pause when the two leaders spoke on Monday.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Tuesday that Israel will “retain complete freedom of action to respond to any situation in the Gaza Strip” once the war ends. Gallant said that “at the end of this ‘campaign,’ Hamas, as a military organization or governing body in Gaza, will cease to exist.”

“There will be no security threat to Israel from Gaza, and Israel will retain complete freedom of action, to respond to any situation in the Gaza Strip that poses any kind of threat,” Gallant said.

Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel is “not talking about any sort of ongoing occupation of the Gaza strip.”

“When this is over and we have defeated Hamas, it is crucial that there won’t be a resurgent terrorist element, a resurgent Hamas. There is no point doing this and just going back to square one,” Regev said.

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“There will have to be an Israeli security presence, but that doesn’t mean Israel is re-occupying Gaza, that doesn’t mean that Israel is there to govern the Gazans,” he added.

The US and its Western Allies have been telling their Israeli counterparts for weeks that Israel should have clear objectives when it comes to degrading Hamas and should seek to avoid a long-term occupation of the Gaza Strip.