Israel should control the Gaza Strip for the foreseeable future and "cleanse if of enemies," Likud MK Amit Halevi told Radio 103FM on Sunday.
“We want to occupy the territory to cleanse it of the enemy; otherwise, it will kill your children and kidnap your grandchildren again,” he said. “Occupation is the nature of war.” Halevi said Israel is required to make a fundamental change in Gaza, part of which is control.
“For many months we have only been dealing with tactics and not with defeating Hamas,” he said.
“The senior command has begun to understand that it is impossible to defeat terrorism without controlling the territory and the population.”
Regarding the negotiations for the hostage-ceasefire deal, Halevi emphasized that halting the fighting was not a possibility.
'Gaza part of our homeland'
He said Israel needed “to return to Gaza permanently and control this space, because it is part of our homeland.”
When asked whether the occupation of the Gaza Strip would lead to the citizenship of Palestinians, he replied, “We want to distinguish between the status of the territory and control over it and the status of the residents, which is definitely something that deserves to be defined. When you give control over education, culture, and religion, you get the results you get.”