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Israel vows to take over Gaza security

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed Israel will take control of ‘overall security’ of besieged Gaza after the war.

Palestinian children run as they flee from Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday. Picture: AFP
Palestinian children run as they flee from Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday. Picture: AFP

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed Israel will take control of “overall security” of besieged Gaza after the war, as the death toll surged past 10,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Resisting calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli Prime Minister said on Tuesday AEDT that there would be no let-up in the war to destroy Hamas, whose October 7 attack left 1400 dead in Israel, most of them civilians.

With international criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war mounting, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Gaza was becoming a “graveyard for children”.

More than 1.5 million people in densely packed Gaza have fled their homes for other parts of the territory in a desperate search for cover, with critical aid only trickling in.

But Mr Netanyahu told US television that the war would continue until Israel had restored “overall security” control of Gaza.

“When we don’t have that ­security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t ­imagine,” he told ABC News.

An Israeli army soldier covers his ears as a self-propelled artillery howitzer fires rounds from a position near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on Monday. Picture: AFP
An Israeli army soldier covers his ears as a self-propelled artillery howitzer fires rounds from a position near the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel on Monday. Picture: AFP

Mr Netanyahu’s comments came after the White House said he had discussed potential “tactical pauses” in a phone call with US President Joe Biden. But no agreements were announced and the pair did not broach the possibility of a ceasefire.

One month since the Palestinian militant group also took more than 240 people hostage in an ­attack that shocked the world, the health ministry said the death toll in Gaza had surpassed 10,000, more than 4000 of them children.

While the US seeks a humanitarian “pause” in the fighting, several countries and UN agencies have repeatedly called for a ceasefire.

“There will be no ceasefire – general ceasefire – in Gaza, without the release of our hostages,” the Prime Minister said.

“As far as tactical, little pauses – an hour here, an hour there – we’ve had them before. I suppose we’ll check the circumstances in order to enable goods – humanitarian goods – to come in or our hostages, individual hostages, to leave.”

The Israeli army said it had pounded Gaza with “significant” strikes on 450 targets over the 24 hours up to Monday morning, and that troops were targeting Hamas commanders in tunnels.

Israeli infantry and tanks have flooded the northern half of the Gaza Strip and tightened an encirclement of Gaza City, effectively splitting the territory in two.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested last week that the Palestinian Authority should retake control of Gaza after the war, and visited the West Bank to meet President Mamud Abbas on Sunday.

People search rubble for survivors and the bodies of victims in the aftermath of Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday. Picture: AFP
People search rubble for survivors and the bodies of victims in the aftermath of Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday. Picture: AFP

But Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, said it would never accept a puppet government in Gaza and that “no force on Earth could annihilate” it, said Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Lebanon.

Ahead of Mr Biden’s call with Mr Netanyahu, Mr Blinken ended his latest whirlwind Middle East tour with a stop in Turkey, where again his host pressed for an Israeli ceasefire.

The US has bolstered its forces in the region, deploying two carrier strike groups and other assets to drive home its message that ­regional actors should not seek to take advantage of the conflict.

It latest warning came in the form of a nuclear-powered Ohio-class guided-missile submarine sent to the region.

Hamas militants fired 16 rockets from Lebanon towards northern Israel on Monday, while Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels claimed they had launched a fresh drone attack against Israel.

According to the Hamas-run health ministry, Israel’s latest overnight barrage killed 292 people and hit two paediatric hospitals and Gaza’s only psychiatric hospital.

“These are massacres! They ­destroyed three houses over the heads of their inhabitants – women and children,” Mahmud Meshmesh, a resident of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, said.

“We have already taken 40 bodies out of the rubble.”

Aid trucks are again driving into Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, but the level ­remains well below that ­before October 7, with Israel saying it needs time for security checks of vehicles, and they are not bringing fuel.

“Without fuel, newborn babies in incubators and patients on life support will die,” Mr Guterres said.

The crossing reopened on Monday to allow the evacuation of foreigners and dual ­nationals, ending a two-day closure prompted by a dispute over the passage of ambulances.

On Monday, 93 aid trucks carrying food, medicines and water crossed through, as well as four ambulances.

AFP

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/israel-vows-to-take-over-gaza-security/news-story/3cf5fa77996d02fe10546a897bb7805b