JERUSALEM — The intensive phase of Israel’s war against Hamas is “about to end,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Sunday night interview on Israeli television, although he said that did not mean the conflict was coming to a close.
After the operation in Rafah, the Gaza’s Strip’s southernmost city and the latest focus of Israel’s ground offensive, Netanyahu said, Israel would keep “mowing the lawn” — a term long used in Israeli security circles to denote the use of force aimed at curtailing the regrowth of militant organizations.
Netanyahu’s remarks were the latest suggestion by senior Israeli officials that the war could soon enter a period of change. As Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant prepared to depart for an official visit to Washington on Saturday, he said his meetings with Biden administration officials would include discussion of “the transition to ‘Phase C’ in Gaza,” which he called “of great importance.”
Last October, about three weeks into the war, Gallant outlined a three-phase battle plan, beginning with a period of intense airstrikes against Hamas targets and infrastructure followed by an intermediate period of ground operations aimed at “eliminating pockets of resistance.”
The third phase, Gallant said at the time, would be to create “a new security reality for the citizens of Israel” — presumably by achieving the stated goals of dismantling Hamas’ military and governing capabilities in Gaza.
While Israel’s military says it is close to dismantling or seriously degrading Hamas’ military infrastructure, the government has not proposed any clear plan for the civilian administration of Gaza after the war.
Netanyahu suggested in the interview that a civilian administration would involve local Palestinians, hopefully with the help of moderate Arab nations. The Israeli military would have to maintain overall security control of the enclave, he said.
The prime minister continued to rule out a proposal that has been pushed by the Biden administration: handing over Gaza to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank.
To get to the “day after Hamas,” Netanyahu said, “first you have to eliminate Hamas” — reiterating his long-standing position that the armed group be fully eradicated, a goal that many experts say is unattainable.
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