Israeli Ministers Publicly Dispute Path for the Future of Gaza

By Hamodia Staff

Prime Minister of Israel Binyomin Netanyahu, in a blistering refutation of the suggestion of Defence Minister Yoav Galant, repudiated Galant’s demand that Israel immediately orchestrate a plan for an alternate government in Gaza even before the elimination of Hamas.

“I am not prepared to exchange Hamastan with Fatahstan,” Netanyahu said emphatically in a taped speech. “After the awful slaughter of October 7^th, I decided to destroy Hamas. The soldiers of the IDF and the security forces are fighting for this. As long as Hamas remains intact, no other authority will enter run Gaza. Certainly not the Palestinian Authority.

“Eighty percent of Palestinians in Yehudah and Shomron support the slaughter of October 7^th. The Palestinian Authority supports terror, educates for terror, and believes in terror. I am not prepared to exchange Hamastan with Fatahstan. Therefore, the first condition to prepare the region for another authority is to destroy Hamas, and to do it without excuses.”

Earlier in the day, Galant discussed his thoughts about the need to immediately establish plans for alternate governance of Gaza, and declared his firm opposition to Israel establishing miliary rule over the Gaza Strip.

“Already in October, on the night of our military maneuver [into Gaza], the defence establishment presented its war plan to the Cabinet, stating that it will be necessary to destroy Hamas battalions, while simultaneously working to establish a local, non-hostile Palestinian governing alternative,” Galant said. “Since October, I have been raising this issue consistently in the Cabinet and have received no response.

“The end of the military campaign must come together with political action. The ‘day after Hamas,’ will only be achieved with Palestinian entities taking control of Gaza, accompanied by international actors, establishing a governing alternative to Hamas’ rule. This, above all, is an interest of the State of Israel.”

Galant spoke of the limits the State of Israel has to face a multi-front threat with their set of resources.

“The IDF must face strategic challenges in arenas both near and far. We must maintain our readiness. [Should this be the decision], military rule in Gaza would become the main security and military effort of the State of Israel over the coming years, at the expense of other arenas. The price paid would be bloodshed and victims, as well as a heavy economic price.

Galant said he will not agree to the establishment of Israeli military rule in Gaza. While the responsibility to dismantle Hamas and to retain full freedom of operation in the Gaza strip lies on the defence establishment and the IDF, he reiterated that it depends on the creation of a governing alternative in Gaza.

“I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a decision and declare that Israel will not establish civilian control over the Gaza strip, that Israel will not establish military governance in the Gaza strip, and that a governing alternative to Hamas in the Gaza strip will be raised immediately.”

Opposition to Galant’s announcement came quickly, as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism faction, decried Galant’s remarks.

“Defense Minister Galant announced today in fact his support for the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state as a reward for terrorism and Hamas for the most terrible massacre perpetrated on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Gallant hides behind amorphous statements about a “third party” that is neither Hamas nor Israel in order to hide the truth. But the truth is that there is no such factor.”

In his denunciation of Galant’s remarks, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said, “From Gallant’s point of view, there is no difference between whether Gaza will be controlled by IDF soldiers, and whether Hamas murderers will control it. This is the essence of the ‘conceptzia’ of a defense minister who failed on October 7, and continues to fail even now.

“Such a defense minister must be replaced in order to achieve the goals of the war,” declared Ben-Gvir.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Moshe Arbel came out against the public confrontation between Gallant and Netanyahu.

“In these difficult times when we are in the most difficult campaign that Israel has known since its founding, it is expected that a responsible leadership knows how not to conduct cabinet talks on the networks and in the media. This media festival does not strengthen national resilience at this time. Stop it.”

Minister Miri Regev called on the Minister of Defence “to deal with the tasks defined for the IDF by the cabinet.”