Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that no Palestinian state would be established in Gaza or the West Bank for as long as he remains in office, hardening his position as international pressure mounts over the future of the territories.
“As long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state controlled by Iran will arise — not in Gaza, and not in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said, using the Israeli term for the West Bank.
The remarks build on comments Netanyahu made earlier this month, when he told a cabinet meeting that Israeli troops would not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas is fully disarmed, and that he had rejected elements of a 15-point U.S.-brokered plan to end the war. The proposal, backed by President Donald Trump, calls for a phased ceasefire, disarmament of Palestinian factions, a staged Israeli troop withdrawal and the transfer of Gaza’s governance to a Palestinian technocratic committee overseen by an international stabilization force.
Netanyahu has said any Israeli withdrawal must be conditioned on Hamas’s full disarmament, a demand that has held up progress on the plan despite a ceasefire that has been formally in place since October.
His comments come as several Western governments, including France and Canada, move to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations this month, and after a group of Muslim-majority countries, among them the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, issued a joint statement criticizing Israel’s approach to the peace process.
Netanyahu faces a tight domestic political contest ahead of Israel’s next election, with recent opinion polls showing his Likud party running close behind rivals.
