Netanyahu: Israel to take military control of all of Gaza, but ‘we don’t want to keep it’

PM says plan is to capture entire Strip, remove Hamas, hand it to non-PA ‘Arab forces’; adds Israel and US agree on principles for post-Hamas Gaza, including non-Israeli civil control

Asked in a Fox News interview if Israel will take over the entire 26-mile strip, Netanyahu said: “We intend to, in order to assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza (sic), and to pass it civilian governance.” But, he stressed, “We don’t want to keep it. We want to have a security perimeter, but we don’t want to govern it. We don’t want to be there as a governing body.”

The prime minister said that Israel wants to “hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly, without threatening us, and giving the Gazans a good life.”