Netanyahu: Israel will assume 'overall security responsibility' for Gaza after the war

(Patria) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that his country will assume "overall security responsibility" for the Gaza Strip indefinitely after the war with Hamas.

"Israel will, indefinitely, have the overall security responsibility," he said in
a televised interview with ABC News.

"When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is an eruption of Hamas terror on a scale we couldn't have imagined," he added.

Netanyahu also stated that there will be no ceasefire in the Gaza Strip until Hamas releases the hostages.

"There will be no ceasefire, a general ceasefire, in Gaza, without the release of our hostages," he said in the aforementioned interview.

However, he opened up possibilities for smaller pauses in hostilities. Israel will consider "tactical small pauses" in fighting in the Gaza Strip to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid or allow the exit of hostages held by Hamas militants, he said.