Tel Aviv, Dec 25, (dpa/GNA) – Israel will never withdraw all its troops from the Gaza Strip, Defence Minister Israel Katz said during a conference arranged by a pro-settler newspaper on Thursday.
“In Gaza, Israel will never fully withdraw. There will be a significant security area inside the Gaza Strip,” Katz said during a conference organized by the Makor Rishon newspaper.
This would remain the case, even in the event of a transition to the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan and disarmament by Hamas, Katz said.
The security zone would run within the Gaza Strip, Katz said. He added that in the northern part of the coastal strip, Israeli settlement cores could be created that would protect the security zone.
Katz, a member of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, was once again contradicting elements of the Trump peace plan, which provides for a phased withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
Following criticism of similar remarks made on Tuesday, Katz appeared to draw back initially. But on Thursday he told the conference: “Reverse is something that I only do when driving.”
GNA