Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country did not enter the Gaza Strip to hand it over to the Palestinian Authority, recalling that the Israeli forces handed the Strip over to that authority when they withdrew from it in 2005, but the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) expelled them from it through a bloody coup in 2007, according to what was reported by The Jerusalem Post.

Netanyahu's statements came after US President Joe Biden published an article in the Washington Post in which he called for the Gaza Strip to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority after carrying out reforms.

Biden said in his article, "As we strive for peace, Gaza and the West Bank must be reunited under one governance structure, and ultimately under a renewed Palestinian authority, and we all work toward a two-state solution."

Netanyahu said, "The Palestinian Authority in its current form is unable to bear responsibility in Gaza," adding, "After we fought and did all this, how can we hand it over to it?"

He pointed out that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "has not yet condemned the October 7 massacre that sparked the Gaza war, in which Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took more than 239 hostage."

Netanyahu said, "Abu Mazen, 43 days after the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, refuses to condemn it," adding that there were Palestinian ministers who expressed their happiness at what Hamas did on that day.

In addition, Netanyahu says, “the Palestinian Authority has a policy of paying monthly salaries to terrorists and their families, and it also teaches its children to hate Jews.”

Netanyahu also reiterated that the Israeli army will maintain military control over Gaza after the war, noting that Israel has made clear that it "will not agree to a ceasefire until it expels Hamas, and that it will only agree to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the return of all hostages."

He repeated his statement that "all Hamas members are dead men, whether they are inside or outside Gaza."

Israel has been continuing its devastating war on Gaza for about a month and a half, and the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced - yesterday, Saturday - that more than 200 Palestinians were killed in a bombing that targeted Al-Fakhoura and Tal Al-Zaatar schools.

The ongoing Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip has led to the death of more than 12,000 Palestinians - most of them children and women - and the injury of more than 29,000.

Source: Al Jazeera + Israeli press