Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on 30 December that the war on Gaza will continue for “many months” and will include taking control of a buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border to “guarantee that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel.”
During a press conference Saturday at the Israeli army headquarters in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu stated, “My policy is clear: We continue to fight until all the objectives of the war have been achieved, primarily the elimination of Hamas and the release of all our hostages.”
Netanyahu said that the Philadelphi Route, which runs for 14 kilometers along the entire Gaza-Egypt border, “has to be in our hands” to ensure that Gaza becomes and remains demilitarized.
This is a further sign Israel seeks to occupy the entire Gaza Strip as part of a broader plan to forcibly expel its 2.3 million residents and rebuild Gush Katif, the Jewish settlement bloc on the Gaza coast that was evacuated in 2005 by then prime minister Ariel Sharon.
US officials have called for the Gaza Strip to be governed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by Fatah party leader Mahmoud Abbas, after the war. But Netanyahu rejected this at the press conference, stating, “Not Fatahstan and not Hamastan.”
Under the provisions of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979, the Philadelphi Route was established as a buffer zone controlled and patrolled by Israeli forces.
The route extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the Kerem Shalom crossing, a three-way border crossing between Israel, Egypt, and Gaza.
Egypt-Gaza Border ‘Must Be In Our Hands’: Netanyahu
