- The Prime Minister vows Israel will control everything West of Jordan River, including West Bank and Gaza
The European Union’s (EU’s) Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell said in a speech on Friday that Israel financed the creation of Hamas in a bid to weaken the Palestinian Authority.
Benjamin Netanyahu has previously denied accusations by his opponents in Israel and some global media that his government spent years actively boosting Hamas in Gaza.
“Yes, Hamas was financed by the government of Israel in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah,” Mr Borrell said in a speech in the University of Valladolid in Spain, without elaborating further on such alleged financing.
Meanwhile, the EU is also set to adopt a dedicated sanctions regime targeting Palestinian militant group Hamas, with an official saying the first measures would target six people involved in the financing of Hamas.
“What we are doing now – it has been done today and I think it will be announced in the coming hours – [is that] we have adopted a dedicated regime for Hamas. We have listed six people” the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.
The official added the six people were all from Arab or African countries.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected U.S. calls for the development of a Palestinian State after the war ends, as he vowed the offensive in Gaza would press ahead for many months – and said all territory west of the Jordan River would be under Israeli security control when this is over.
In a nationally televised news conference on Friday, the Israeli Prime Minister struck a defiant tone, repeatedly saying that Israel would not halt its offensive until it achieved its goals of destroying the Hamas militant group and bringing home all remaining hostages in Gaza.
“In any future arrangement … Israel needs security control of all territory west of the Jordan [River],” he told a news conference.
“This collides with the idea of sovereignty. What can you do?”
The land referred to by Mr Netanyahu, who leads a far-right government opposed to Palestinian statehood, effectively includes the Gaza Strip and the West Bank – both Palestinian territories.
“This truth I tell to our American friends, and I put the brakes on the attempt to coerce us to a reality that would endanger the state of Israel,” Mr Netanyahu added.
Israel’s closest ally, the US, has urged the country to scale back the intensity of its devastating military offensive that has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The US has said the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority, which governs certain zones in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, should be “revitalised” and returned to Gaza, having been ousted from the territory in 2007.
The US has also called for steps towards the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Speaking on Wednesday, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said the two-state solution was the best way to protect Israel, unify moderate Arab countries and isolate Israel’s arch-enemy, Iran.
