Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would consider “tactical little pauses” in Gaza fighting to facilitate the entry of aid or the exit of hostages, but again rejected calls for a general ceasefire despite growing international pressure.
“As far as tactical little pauses — an hour here, an hour there — we’ve had them before. I suppose we’ll check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages, to leave,” Netanyahu told ABC News.
“But I don’t think there’s going to be a general ceasefire.”
Speaking in a US television interview, Netanyahu, whose country has vowed to destroy Gaza’s Hamas fighters, said he thought Israel would need security responsibility over the Palestinian enclave for an “indefinite period” after the war.
When asked during the interview who should govern Gaza when the conflict is over, Netanyahu said: “I think Israel will for an indefinite period… have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that security responsibility.”
“There will be no ceasefire — general ceasefire — in Gaza without the release of our hostages,” he said.—Reuters
