Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to regain control of the Gaza Strip border with Egypt, expanding Israel’s mission to neutralize Hamas in a conflict he says will last for months. hopefully.
“The war is at its peak,” Netanyahu told reporters on Saturday about the fighting since October 7, when the Palestinian militant group Hamas and its allies crossed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages. Was caught.
He said the Philadelphia Corridor buffer zone running along Gaza’s border with Egypt should remain in Israeli hands.
“It must stop,” Netanyahu said. “It is clear that no other arrangement will ensure the demilitarization that we seek.”
He did not elaborate, but such a move by Israel would be a virtual reversal of its 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, bringing the territory under exclusive Israeli control after years of being run by Hamas.
Netanyahu’s comments about the buffer zone came as Israeli military forces pressed ahead with an offensive that the prime minister reiterated would last “for many more months.”