Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “intense phase” of fighting in Rafah in southern Gaza was coming to an end, but that did not mean the war was over.
He said the war would continue until Hamas was completely ousted.
He added that the Israeli army would soon be able to redeploy troops to the Lebanese border, where fighting with Hezbollah has been escalating.
Mr Netanyahu also once again rejected the idea that the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority should run Gaza in place of Hamas.
“Ultimately, you have to do two things: you need the ongoing military demilitarization of the Israel Defense Forces, and you need to create a civilian administration, which I hope will be supported and administered by some of the countries in the region, which I think is the way forward. The right way,” he said in an interview on Israeli television.
“I will tell you what I’m not ready to do, I’m not ready to establish a Palestinian state there, I’m not ready to hand it over to the Palestinian Authority. I’m not ready to do that.”
Rafah residents said there were more clashes in the city, while an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City reportedly killed the head of emergency services at the Hamas health ministry.
An aid distribution center was also attacked: the IDF said it was used by Hamas.
Israeli Defense Minister Yov Galante begins a visit to Washington to discuss the war in Gaza and rising tensions with the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The Israeli military launched an operation to destroy Hamas in response to the Palestinian armed group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 others hostage .
Since then, more than 37,551 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. The group’s figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but by the end of April it had reportedly identified 14,680 children, women and the elderly among the dead.
