Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday said that he “will not compromise on full Israeli control” over Gaza and that “this is contrary to a Palestinian state,” rejecting US President Joe Biden’s suggestion that creative solutions could bridge wide gaps between the leaders’ views on Palestinian statehood.
In a sign of the pressures Netanyahu’s government faces at home, thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv calling for new elections, and others demonstrated outside the prime minister’s house, joining families of the more than 100 remaining hostages held by Hamas and other militants. They fear that Israel’s military activity further endangers hostages’ lives.
Netanyahu is also under heat to appease members of his right-wing ruling coalition by intensifying the war against Hamas, which governs Gaza, while contending with calls for restraint from the US, its closest ally.
Photo: Reuters
Netanyahu posted his statement on social media a day after his first conversation with Biden in nearly a month. Discussing his administration’s position on Friday, Biden said “there are a number of types of two-state solutions” and, asked if a two-state solution was impossible with Netanyahu in office, Biden replied: “No, it’s not.”
After Netanyahu’s statement, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the US to go further.
“It is time for the United States to recognize the state of Palestine, not just talk about a two-state solution,” Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “The refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable.”
Speaking in Uganda, he said the refusal would “indefinitely prolong” the conflict.
Netanyahu has said Israel must fight until it achieves “complete victory” and Hamas no longer poses a threat but has not outlined how this would be accomplished.
However, a member of his War Cabinet, former Israeli defense force chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, has called a ceasefire the only way to secure the hostages’ release, a comment that implied criticism of Israel’s current strategy.
Critics have accused Netanyahu of preventing a Cabinet-level debate about a post-war scenario for Gaza. They said he is stalling to prevent conflict within his coalition.
Netanyahu’s office called the claim that he was unnecessarily prolonging the war “utter nonsense.”
Israel launched its war against Hamas after the militant group’s unprecedented Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — in Israel and saw about 250 others taken hostage. Health authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Israel’s offensive has killed about 25,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
The offensive has pulverized much of the territory and displaced more than 80 percent of its population of 2.3 million people. An Israeli blockade that allows only a trickle of aid into Gaza has led to widespread hunger and outbreaks of disease, UN officials said.
Netanyahu has insisted that the only way to secure the hostages’ return is by crushing Hamas through military means.
More than 100 hostages, mostly women and children, were released during a brief November ceasefire in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children imprisoned by Israel.
Israel has said that more than 130 hostages remain in Gaza, but only about 100 are believed to be alive.
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