FLASH
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will have "overall security responsibility" over the Gaza Strip "for an indefinite period" after the end of the war against Hamas.
"I think that Israel for an indefinite period will have overall security responsibility, because we have seen what happens when we don't have it. When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is the explosion of Hamas terror on a scale we couldn't imagine," he told the American ABC News network.
The position has been expressed by Israeli officials in recent weeks under conditions of anonymity, but Netanyahu now "puts the position on the table himself."
It is not clear what Netanyahu has in mind regarding the scale of security responsibility, but Israeli officials have insisted that they do not want to occupy Gaza after the war.
Joe Biden's administration has voiced its opposition to that scenario as well, warning Jerusalem that it is more likely to find itself trapped in Gaza if it does not begin drawing up a plan for who will govern the enclave if it succeeds in ousting Hamas from power.
It follows comments by other Israeli officials who have said that Israel will need to maintain a military presence inside Gaza to serve as a "buffer" protecting Israeli civilians.
Netanyahu is also under pressure if he will agree to US President Joe Biden's call for humanitarian pauses.
He initially dodges the question, saying he opposes a longer-term ceasefire on the grounds that it would amount to a capitulation to Hamas.
But then, he hints at greater flexibility on the matter for the first time.
“As far as practical, small breaks – an hour here, an hour there. We've had them before. We will check the circumstances [to have additional pauses] in order to allow the entry of humanitarian goods or the departure of our hostages, individual hostages," Netanyahu added.
Netanyahu then indicated that he would agree to a ceasefire if Hamas released all of the approximately 240 hostages being held in Gaza.
"There would be a ceasefire for this purpose and we are waiting for that to happen. It hasn't happened so far," he says.
The prime minister added that Israel has some information about the location of the hostages, but declined to elaborate.
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