Netanyahu on Biden’s Call to Avoid Occupation: We’ll Have ‘Overall Security Responsibility’ for Gaza for ‘Indefinite’ Time

During a portion of an interview with ABC News aired on Monday’s broadcast of “World News Tonight,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to President Joe Biden urging Israel to refrain from occupying Gaza and a question on how Gaza should be governed after the current conflict is over by stating that Gaza should be governed by people “who don’t want to continue the way of Hamas.” And “for an indefinite period,” Israel “will have the overall security responsibility” for the area because we have seen that when Israel doesn’t “have that security responsibility,” there is “the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.”

Host David Muir asked, “President Biden has said that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza. Who should govern Gaza when this is over?”

Netanyahu responded, “Those who don’t want to continue the way of Hamas. It certainly is not — 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. 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.”

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