Israel may have ‘security responsibility’ for Gaza for ‘indefinite period’ after war ends, Netanyahu says
Israel may govern Gaza for an “indefinite period”, after the war ends, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suggested in an interview with the US’ ABC News.
Noting that US President Joe Biden had previously said it would be a “mistake” for Israel to occupy Gaza, interviewer David Muir asked Netanyahu who should govern the territory when the fighting ends.
The prime minister suggested Israel would have a role to play for an “indefinite period.”
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.
Last month, Israel defence minister Yoav Gallant said 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 US has also suggested the Palestinian Authority, which administers the West Bank, could take charge in Gaza while others have suggested a consortium of Arab states could take responsibility.
Asked about Netanyahu’s comments, US national security council spokesperson John Kirby said:
What we support is that Hamas can’t be in control of Gaza any more.
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.
Key events
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Gaza.
The Israel Defence Forces have claimed they intercepted “a suspicious aerial target” near the blue-line which marks the UN-drawn boundary between Israel and Lebanon.
In a message posted to Telegram the IDF said
A short while ago, the IDF aerial defence array intercepted a suspicious aerial target that was identified in the area of the border with Lebanon before it crossed into Israeli territory.
Furthermore, a short while ago, terrorists fired at an IDF post in the area of Aramshe in northern Israel. No injuries were reported.
IDF soldiers responded with artillery fire toward the origins of the shooting in Lebanon.
The IDF and anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon have repeatedly exchanged fire since the Hamas attack on 7 October. Israel has ordered multiple communities near the blue line to evacuate.
In a television interview, the Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy has reiterated Israel’s position that there will be no ceasefire until Hamas has returned the more than 240 hostages it seized on 7 October.
He posted a clip to social media of his interview with DW News, saying:
There will be no ceasefire that leaves our hostages in Gaza and Hamas in power. Forget about it. We will fight to wipe out the perpetrators of the 7 October massacre and to bring our hostages home.
There will be no ceasefire that leaves our hostages in Gaza and Hamas in power. Forget about it.
We will fight to wipe out the perpetrators of the October 7 Massacre and to bring our hostages home.
My interview with @dwnews pic.twitter.com/XeiEGOxQEd
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) November 7, 2023
Elaborating on Israel’s reasoning against calls for a ceasefire, he said:
There was a ceasefire on the 6 October. Hamas broke it. Brutally murdered 1,400 people and then retreated back to the Gaza Strip.
A ceasefire would literally let Hamas get away with murder.
It would leave it free to do it again, this time with 240 hostages inside Gaza.
And Hamas is threatening to do a second 7 October. And a third. And a fourth. As many as it takes in order to wipe out the state of Israel and murder every man, woman and child in this country.
So we will not ceasefire until we achieve our war goals to destroy Hamas, so it can never again hurt our people, and never again perpetrate what it did on 7 October.
Antony Blinken has said that the G7 summit in Japan is an important moment for the group to come together in the face of the crisis in Israel and Gaza.
The US secretary of state, meeting his Japanese counterpart, Yoko Kamikawa, said: “This is a very important moment as well for the G7 to come together in the face of this crisis and to speak, as we do, with one clear voice.”
Kamikawa said Japan “unequivocally condemns” Hamas’s attack on Israel and supported US efforts to find a way forward. She added that “solid unity between Japan and the US is especially critical at this point”.
“We appreciate the diplomatic efforts of the US in the recent situation between Israel and Palestine,” she said, according to an Associated Press report. “You have our utmost support.”
Blinken also had talks with Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida.
Patrick Wintour
Patrick Wintour is the Guardian’s diplomatic editor:
Israel’s attempt to wipe out Hamas in response to the attacks of 7 October is likely to breed only more radicalisation, besides being unlawful, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories has said.
In an interview with the Guardian, Francesca Albanese also said the international community was “reaping the whirlwind” of failing to heed the concerns of those, including herself, who had criticised Israel’s “systematic repression of Palestinian human rights”.
“We raised the alarm in the international community, the human rights community, but no one has really listened,” Albanese said. “Now it has reached a dangerous point of no return where the chances of peaceful coexistence have dropped vertically off a cliff. In fact we are staring into an abyss.”
Albanese, an Italian academic, has often been accused by Israel of displaying pro-Palestinian bias, a charge she denies.
She challenged Israel to consider what is in its own self-interest. “Half the infrastructure of Gaza has been destroyed. 9,000 people have been killed, 3,500 of them are reported to be children, over 1,000 of them are still under the rubble. How on earth is that going to lead to peace?”
She doubted it was possible to eradicate Hamas, which she described as “not just a military presence but a political reality”.
Read more of Patrick Wintour’s report here: Israel’s attempt to destroy Hamas will breed more radicalisation, UN expert says
Here are a couple of pictures from Jerusalem this morning, where people have been marking a month since the 7 October Hamas massacre inside Israel which killed at least 1,400 people.
A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that more than 160 healthcare workers had died on duty in Gaza and called for a lifting of restrictions on medical aid, saying some doctors were performing operations, including amputations, without anaesthetic.
“Over 160 of the healthcare workers have died on duty while taking care of those injured and diseased. These are the people keeping the health system going through the dedication they have somehow found a way to keep some level of service going,” Reuters reports that Christian Lindmeier told a press briefing.
The news agency notes he did not cite the source of information.
Masafer Yatta, a collection of shepherding hamlets, is in Area C, the sparsely populated 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli control and under threat of annexation.
Palestinian water cisterns, solar panels, roads and buildings are frequently demolished on the grounds that they do not have building permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain, while surrounding illegal Israeli settlements flourish.
One Palestinian resident, Alaa Hathleen, told the Guardian he and his neighbours were under threat. Over the past three weeks, he says, settlers have burned down homes and attacked Palestinians residing there, as violence from Israeli settlers and IDF forces has intensified in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.
Here is the video report:
Summary of the day so far …
It has just gone noon in Gaza City and in Tel Aviv. Here are the latest headlines:
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Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel may consider “tactical little pauses” in fighting to allow the entry of aid or the exit of hostages from the Gaza Strip, but he again rejected calls for a ceasefire. When asked who should govern the territory after fighting ends, the Israeli prime minister told ABC news in an interview broadcast on Monday night: “Israel will for an indefinite period … have the overall security responsibility [in Gaza] because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that security responsibility.”
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Israel’s military claims to have captured a Hamas military stronghold and detonated a Hamas weapons depot “in a civilian area” adjacent to al-Quds hospital. Israel has repeatedly claimed that Hamas is using hospital buildings to carry out military operations. Israeli forces said they had severed northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory and pounded it with intense airstrikes on Monday.
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On Tuesday a moment’s silence was held in Israel to mark 30 days since the Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,400 people were killed. In Jerusalem on Monday night a vigil had been held with a candle lit for each victim. Relatives of the dead gathered at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall to mark a month of mourning.
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The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, began a five-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday to engage with government officials and civil society on the human rights violations taking place amid Israel’s escalation in Gaza. “It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,” Türk said in a statement.
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The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the protection of civilians “must be paramount” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, warning that the Gaza Strip was becoming “a graveyard for children”. Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, responded by saying: “Shame on you.”
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More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza in response to the 7 October attacks, according to figures released by the health authority in the territory. The total number of deaths now stands at 10,022, including 4,104 children. The number of casualties in Gaza has not been independently verified.
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The Israel Defence Forces military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said that on Tuesday Israel has again fired into Lebanon in response to an attack.
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Haaretz reports that a Palestinian woman has been shot this morning in the occupied West Bank after allegedly approaching Israeli forces with a knife and a Hamas flag.
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The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has arrived in Japan for a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers expected to be dominated by the Israel-Hamas war.
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The Kremlin called on Tuesday for “humanitarian pauses” in Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, and it described the humanitarian situation there as “catastrophic”. Russia will continue contacts with Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians to help ensure that humanitarian supplies can be delivered into Gaza, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a regular briefing. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed nearly 22,000 civilians, according to UN figures.
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Russia’s foreign ministry said a statement by an Israeli junior minister who appeared to voice openness to the idea of Israel carrying out a nuclear strike on Gaza had raised many questions. Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said “it turns out that we are hearing an official statement about the presence of nuclear weapons? Accordingly, the next questions that everyone has are – where are the international organisations, where is the IAEA, where are the inspectors?” Israel has never conducted a public nuclear test or stated in public that it has possession of nuclear weapons. However, international observers believe it has a stockpile of 80-90 warheads.
The Israel Defence Forces military spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said that Israel has again fired into Lebanon in response to an attack. He wrote:
A short time ago, an IDF tank attacked a terrorist squad in Lebanese territory that tried to launch an anti-tank missile towards Israeli territory near the Shatula area. Also, earlier today IDF forces attacked a position of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah, in order to remove a threat.
טנק של צה”ל תקף לפני זמן קצר בשטח לבנון חוליית מחבלים שניסתה לשגר טיל נ”ט לעבר שטח ישראל סמוך למרחב שתולה.
כמו כן, מוקדם יותר היום כוחות צה”ל תקפו עמדה של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה, על מנת להסיר איום.
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי – Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) November 7, 2023
The Kremlin called on Tuesday for “humanitarian pauses” in Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, and it described the humanitarian situation there as “catastrophic”.
Russia will continue contacts with Israel, Egypt and the Palestinians to help ensure that humanitarian supplies can be delivered into Gaza, Reuters reports that the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a regular briefing.
In its latest bulletin, the UN has recorded just under 22,000 civilian casualties, including 7,481 killed, in areas of Ukraine controlled by the Kyiv government since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. You can follow our live coverage of the Ukraine-Russia war here.
The IDF has reported that sirens are sounding in Ashkelon in southern Israel. Ashkelon has come under repeated rocket fire from Gaza during the last month.
Israel’s military has said that it has again opened a corridor for people to travel from the north of Gaza to the south.
On its Arabic language channel, it wrote:
Residents of Gaza, join the many who are heading to the south of Wadi Gaza at this hour. I would like to inform you that although Hamas continues to undermine the ongoing humanitarian efforts on your behalf and uses you as human shields, today the IDF will once again allow passage on the Salah al-Din Road between 10am and 2pm. For your safety, take this next opportunity to move south beyond Wadi Gaza. Many of you are doing this at this hour, as you can see in the attached photos that were taken a short while ago. If you care about yourself and your loved ones, head south according to our instructions. Rest assured that Hamas leaders have already taken care of defending themselves.
#عاجل أيها سكان غزة، انضموا الى الكثيرين الذين يتوجهون الى جنوب وادي غزة في هذه الساعة!
🔴أود أن أعلمكم أنه على الرغم من أن حماس تواصل المساس بالجهود الإنسانية الجارية لمصلحتكم وتستخدمكم كدروع بشرية، إلا أن جيش الدفاع الإسرائيلي سيسمح مرة أخرى اليوم بالمرور على طريق صلاح الدين… pic.twitter.com/9hxL6e8gfn— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) November 7, 2023
It is currently approaching 11.30am in Gaza, meaning residents have about two and a half hours left to move.
Despite the repeated calls for Gazan residents to move south for safety, Israel has continued to bombard cities like Rafah and Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, began a five-day visit to the Middle East on Tuesday to engage with government officials and civil society on the human rights violations taking place amid Israel’s escalation in Gaza.
“It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,” Reuters reports Türk said in a statement. “Human rights violations are at the root of this escalation and human rights play a central role in finding a way out of this vortex of pain.”
Türk is in Cairo on Tuesday and will visit Rafah, located on the border with Gaza, on Wednesday, before he travels to the Jordanian capital of Amman on Thursday, his office said.
Israel is currently marking a month since the 7 October Hamas attacks with a moment of silence.
Haaretz reports that a Palestinian woman has been shot this morning in the occupied West Bank after allegedly approaching Israeli forces with a knife and a Hamas flag.
It reports the woman approached the Qalandia checkpoint into Jerusalem, “and advanced towards security guards”.
The report continues that security forces responded by shooting her, and that she has been arrested and is receiving medical attention.
In the UK, the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, has been appearing in a series of interviews on radio and television which is known as the “morning media round”, where the government puts up a minister to answer any questions put to them by broadcasters.
PA Media reports that Chalk said: “We think there are three British hostages who are there [in Gaza].”
Chalk also commented on a controversy that has been brewing in the UK, on the proposals for a pro-Palestinian march on Saturday 11 November in London. It would take place on the same day that the country marks the end of the first world war at 11am, known in the UK as Armistice Day.
The Metropolitan police force in London have advised that the protest, calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza, be cancelled, a request that is widely expected to be ignored. Chalk said:
Of course, there is the right to protest, which is important, but also concerns about public safety. We think that it’s wise advice. We think it takes account of all the competing considerations and that it should be followed.
The home secretary, Suella Braverman – the equivalent of an interior minister – has previously described pro-Palestinian marches in the UK as “hate marches”. Chalk echoed her words, saying: “The home secretary is absolutely correct when she says that there is hate on these marches.”