Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday vowed to block any attempt to install the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Gaza after the war with Hamas, putting him in direct opposition to the U.S., which wants to see the body rule the coastal strip after the war.
Netanyahu said in a video address that he was grateful for U.S. support in Israel’s bid to destroy Hamas but that there was “disagreement about the day after” the Palestinian militant group is defeated.
“I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo,” he said, referring to the 1993 accords that paved the way for Palestinian expansion in the West Bank and the rule in the territory of the PA.
“After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers,” Netanyahu continued, “I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism.”
Netanyahu has repeatedly slammed the PA as a corrupt governing authority that finances and fuels terrorism against the Israeli people.
The Israeli prime minister has shot down ideas backed by the U.S. to install the PA in Gaza once the war with Hamas is over, but his Tuesday comments are the most forceful to date.
Netanyahu has also promised to exert security control over Gaza after the war, another point of contention with the U.S., which has warned against occupying the territory.
The dispute over post-war rule comes as tensions have already begun to increase between Washington and Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
President Biden on Monday said Netanyahu has a photo on his desk of a 32-year-old Biden, when the president was a senator. He said he wrote on the back of the photo: “I love you but I don’t agree with a damn thing you have to say.”
“And it’s about the same today,” Biden quipped Monday.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas told Reuters this month he would be willing to return to Gaza but needs “big support” to do so, along with the necessary capabilities to govern the strip, which has been hammered by Israeli airstrikes, reducing urban neighborhoods to rubble.
“Gaza today is not the Gaza that you know. Gaza was destroyed, its hospitals, its schools, its infrastructure, its buildings, its roads and mosques were destroyed,” Abbas said. “There is nothing left. When we return we need resources, Gaza needs reconstruction.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he supports reforming the PA, which is plagued by corruption concerns, to take over Gaza once the fighting ends.
“There are a number of things that we think would be critical to making sure that, again, the Palestinian Authority can be effective in helping to advance the aspirations and the needs of its people,” Blinken said last month.