The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas on Friday both denounced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal for the "day after" Hamas, which was discussed by the Political-Security Cabinet on Thursday.
“If the world wants security and stability in the region, it must end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and recognize the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesperson for PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement quoted in Al Jazeera.
Abu Rudeineh rejected any effort to separate governance in Gaza from Judea and Samaria.
“Gaza will only be part of the independent Palestinian state … Any plans to the contrary are destined to fail,” he said, adding, “Israel will not succeed in attempts to alter the geographic and demographic reality in the Gaza Strip.”
“Netanyahu’s proposed plans aim to perpetuate Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Abu Rudeineh stated.
Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan also lambasted Netanyahu's plan for post-war Gaza during a press conference in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Friday.
"When it comes to the day after in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu is presenting ideas which he knows fully well will never succeed," Hamdan told reporters, as quoted by AFP.
White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby was also asked on Friday about Israel's post-war plans.
"I'm going to defer to Israel to speak to the specificity of these plans. What I can speak to is our views, and we've been clear about what our views are. We have had constructive discussions with the Israelis on all these issues over recent weeks, where we have of course continued to make clear positions, including where those views and our positions diverge from them," Kirby told reporters, as quoted by Haaretz.
While Kirby did not comment on the specifics of the outline presented by Netanyahu, he did say that the Biden administration does not believe in reducing the size of Gaza or the forced displacement of any residents.
"Of course, we don't want to see Gaza dominated, ruled or governed over by Hamas. Those are very consistent positions, we still hold to them," Kirby said. "And as I said earlier, we made that consistently clear with our Israeli counterparts."
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)