JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel enjoys U.S. support for its goals of destroying Hamas and recovering hostages held by the Palestinian militants, but the allies differ about what might follow the Gaza war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
Reiterating his past refusal to countenance a return to Gaza rule of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu said in a statement that Gaza “will be neither Hamas-stan nor ‘Fatah-stan'”. Fatah is Abbas’s faction.
“I would like to clarify my position: I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo,” Netanyahu said without clarifying which mistake he was referring to.
The 1993 Oslo Accords established limited Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza.
On Tuesday, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization Hussein Al-Sheikh responded to reports that the Israeli premier had compared the Oslo Accords to Hamas’ massacre on Oct. 7 by saying both had caused a similar amount of Israeli deaths.
“Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement equating the Oslo Accords with what happened on Oct. 7 confirms his war against all Palestinians,” Al-Sheikh said. “We say to Netanyahu that Oslo died under the treads of his tanks, sweeping through our cities, villages, and camps from Jenin to Rafah.”
(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Alex Richardson)
