Johnathan Paoli
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed his intention of placing the border zone between the Gaza strip and Egypt under Israeli control and said that the war in the Palestinian enclave would continue for many months.
Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, Netanyahu said that he was renewing his promise to eliminate Hamas and bring home all captive Israelis held in Gaza.
“The Philadelphi Corridor – or to put it more correctly, the southern stoppage point [of Gaza] – must be in our hands. It must be shut. It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarisation that we seek,” Netanyahu said.
The prime ministers said that the state of Israel intends to destroy Hamas in Gaza and demilitarise the territory in order to prevent any repeat of the October 7 cross border attack by the armed group.
In addition, Netanyahu referred to the recent almost daily exchanges of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border and said that if the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah intended on expanding the warfare, it could expect retaliation, including their host, the country of Iran.
The war has triggered fears of a regional conflagration amid rising tensions with other Iranian-aligned groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Israel’s relentless bombing and ground offensive on Gaza since October 7 has killed at least 21,672 people, most of them women and children, with thousands of others buried under the rubble.
The military operation has also displaced almost the entire 2.3 million population of the besieged territory.
The Israeli army kept up its campaign across the Gaza Strip on Friday in the face of mounting international pushback, with the UN chief Antonio Guterres reiterating his call for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”, and SA initiating a case against Israel in international court.
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