Netanyahu Says PA Can't Run Gaza Strip After War

Facts

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday indicated that Tel Aviv wouldn't allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) to exercise security control over the Gaza Strip after the conclusion of the current war with Hamas.¹
• Emphasizing that the country will not cave to international pressure for a ceasefire, Netanyahu stated that Israel will protect itself and will 'stand firm against the world if necessary.'²
• Netanyahu's stern warnings have come after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said 'far too many Palestinians have been killed' during Israel's war on Hamas, while French Pres. Emmanuel Macron has called on the IDF to stop killing women, children, and the elderly in Gaza.³
• Previously, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that an expanded regional conflict could cause extensive destruction to Lebanon similar to that in Gaza if Hezbollah escalated its hostilities with Israel, adding, 'the ones who will pay the price will be first and foremost Lebanese citizens.'⁴
• Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent on Sunday held signatories of the Fourth Geneva Convention accountable for the 'complete breakdown of the health system and the resulting dire humanitarian conditions' in Gaza, after Al-Quds Hospital went out of service due to a lack of fuel and a power outage.⁵
• The World Health Organization also claimed to have lost communication with Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital, alleging the tanks and Israeli troops surrounding it were maiming and killing civilians seeking to exit the premises.⁶

Sources: ¹VOA, ²The Print, ³Archive, ⁴Arab News, ⁵AA and ⁶NDTV.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by The New York Times. While Israel has the right to retaliate against Hamas for its heinous and catastrophic terrorist actions, it must do it in the right way — with a clear commitment to seek a two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority. Israel's overreach in the Gaza Strip could set the whole region ablaze and trigger a Middle East war. Such regional conflict will not only draw the US, Russia, and China into the conflict — directly or indirectly — but could damage both Israelis and Palestinians irreparably, threaten Jews everywhere, and destabilize the whole world.
• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by The Jerusalem Post. Israel must have boots on the ground in Gaza in order to destroy Hamas and restore its deterrence and security. Instead of criticizing Israel over the civilian costs of the war, the international community must throw its support behind the Jewish state, since its victory over the terror group would mean victory for the entirety of the free world. A ceasefire, which doesn’t include a return of the hundreds of hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas terrorists, will only support the nefarious intentions of the PA, which has so far failed to condemn Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.
• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Al Jazeera. Regardless of Netanyahu's plans, the PA cannot return to the Gaza Strip atop Israeli tanks. People in Gaza, even while Israel is brutally attacking them, do not want to live like Palestinians in the West Bank — under a corrupt PA that functionally serves as a subcontractor for the occupation. The people of Gaza obviously don't want to be ruled by Israel, but they don't want to be ruled by the PA either, as that would only provide a thin illusion of, rather than actual self-governance.

Predictions