Netanyahu vows to take control of Gaza, hand over to ‘Arab forces’; Hamas calls it ‘coup’

Netanyahu calls for full Gaza control

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel intends to take full military control of the Gaza Strip to defeat Hamas, with plans to hand over its administration to allied Arab authorities eventually.

However, Netanyahu’s comments have drawn swift and sharp criticism from Hamas, which labelled the move as “a coup."

“Netanyahu’s plans to escalate the aggression confirm beyond any doubt his desire to get rid of the captives and sacrifice them in pursuit of his personal interests and extremist ideological agenda," Hamas said in an official statement.

“We intend to [take control of Gaza], in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza," he said.

Netanyahu emphasized that Israel has no intention of maintaining permanent control over Gaza and suggested that governance of the territory could eventually be transferred to Arab countries.

"We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter," he further added, according to a report by the Irish Independent.

Netanyahu made the remarks to Fox News ahead of a scheduled meeting on Thursday with a small group of senior ministers to review military plans for expanding control over additional areas in Gaza.

The current deliberations follow an earlier high-level meeting this week with the military chief, which officials described as “tense,” highlighting his opposition to further expanding the operation.

According to two government sources, any decision by the Security Cabinet would still need the approval of the full cabinet, which is unlikely to meet before Sunday.