{"id":261033,"date":"2026-01-28T02:05:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T02:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/261033\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T02:05:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T02:05:20","slug":"netanyahu-no-gaza-rebuild-before-hamas-disarms-israel-will-keep-security-control-over-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/261033\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu: No Gaza rebuild before Hamas disarms, Israel will keep ‘security control’ over Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his assertion that Israel will not allow Gaza\u2019s reconstruction before terror groups in the Strip disarm, and said Israel would maintain security control over Gaza and the West Bank, in a wide-ranging press conference called Tuesday evening following the return to Israel of the final slain hostage, Ran Gvili.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we are focusing on completing the two remaining missions: dismantling Hamas\u2019s weapons and demilitarizing Gaza of arms and tunnels,\u201d the premier said.<\/p>\n

He also claimed vindication in having returned all of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip. He reiterated a warning that Israel will respond with force if attacked by Iran.<\/p>\n

He discouraged Israel from holding early elections, in the face of a crisis that threatens to collapse his coalition. He slammed the criminal investigations probing the conduct of his close aides.<\/p>\n

In bombshell comments, he also blamed<\/a> limitations on arms from the administration of former US president Joe Biden for the deaths of Israeli soliders in Gaza. And he insinuated<\/a> that Saudi Arabia should not align itself with Qatar and Turkey if it hopes to normalize relations with Israel.<\/p>\n

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Netanyahu\u2019s presser occurred at a time of simultaneous relief and tension for Israel. The country\u2019s long-running hostage crisis is over now that Gvili\u2019s body has been returned from Gaza. But it is on tenterhooks as a US strike on Iran \u2014 and Iranian retaliation against Israel \u2014 remains possible.<\/p>\n

The return of Gvili\u2019s body marks the end of the first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza.\u00a0 US President Donald Trump inaugurated the second phase last week, which is meant to see longer-term governance frameworks in the Strip as well as its reconstruction.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tIDF troops operate at a cemetery in Gaza City during a search for the body of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, in a handout photo issued on January 27, 2026. (Israel Defense Forces)<\/p>\n

But Netanyahu warned, as he did Monday, that the next mission is to disarm Hamas, before moving on to rebuilding Gaza. Trump\u2019s plan for Gaza mandates the terror group\u2019s disarmament but there is widespread skepticism in Israel that Hamas will agree to lay down its weapons.<\/p>\n

Further Israeli troop withdrawals from Gaza are tied to the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of the enclave under the plan. Netanyahu asserted that Israel\u2019s political and security interests will be met and that reconstruction can only happen after demilitarization.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I agreed with President Trump\u2026 there are only two possibilities: either this will be done the easy way, or it will be done the hard way, but in any case, it will happen,\u201d Netanyahu said of disarmament. \u201cI am already hearing the statements that we will allow Gaza\u2019s reconstruction before demilitarization. That will not happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu confirmed that the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt \u201cwill be open in both directions\u201d when it finally resumes operations soon. He said he doesn\u2019t know the exact number of pedestrians who will be allowed into Gaza every day, but estimated it at \u201c50 people plus family members coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not going to prevent anyone from leaving,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu added that \u201cthere will be no open access \u2014 it is not going to be opened for goods. \u2026 People go out, people come in \u2014 but they are checked, thoroughly checked [by Israel].\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the opening of the crossing was agreed by Israel in Trump\u2019s 20-point Gaza plan, but was conditional on Hamas meeting its obligations in the first phase of the plan, which has now been achieved with return of Gvili. And he asserted that Israel will continue to maintain overall security control at Rafah.<\/p>\n

PM: Israeli security control to extend \u2018from Jordan River to sea\u2019<\/p>\n

Netanyahu also emphasized that a Palestinian state in Gaza \u201cwill not happen,\u201d and touted his efforts to \u201crepeatedly\u201d stop the establishment of a one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael will maintain security control over the entire area from the Jordan River to the sea, and that applies to the Gaza Strip as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also repeated his assertion that Qatar and Turkey would not have boots on the ground in Gaza, following those countries getting seats on a body meant to oversee Gaza\u2019s postwar governance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am hearing that we will bring Turkish soldiers and Qatari soldiers into Gaza. That too will not happen,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He said that neither Hamas nor the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority are happy with the makeup of the Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with the day-to-day governance of Gaza.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference in Jerusalem on January 27, 2026. (Maayan Toaf\/GPO)<\/p>\n

While charging it was difficult to find individuals not tied to either the terror group or the PA to manage Gaza, he stressed that Israel is vetting officials to make sure those from Hamas\u2019s military wing aren\u2019t included.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a simple truth in Gaza,\u201d said Netanyahu. \u201cThey either worked for Hamas, or they worked for the PA. If you try to look for a water engineer who wasn\u2019t in either, you won\u2019t find one.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThe important thing is, who will pay their salaries, and the most important thing is to take apart Hamas and not let the PA enter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu: I withstood pressures to bring hostages home<\/p>\n

Netanyahu insisted that he had believed all the hostages could be returned home from Gaza, \u201ceven in the face of pressures from both inside and out,\u201d and thanked the IDF, Shin Bet, Israel Police, Trump, and members of his government for their assistance in returning the hostages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believed that through the combination of military pressure and diplomatic pressure we could \u2014 and would \u2014 bring all of our hostages home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu told the press he is in discussions about turning the recommendations of the 2008 Shamgar Committee \u2014 which recommended drastically limiting the price Israel pays for hostages \u2014 into law, but said it is a \u201cvery complex question.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tIsraelis gather at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv before a clock-stopping ceremony following the return of the body of the last hostage, Ran Gvili, from Hamas captivity, January 27, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

His government needed to decide what limitations they want to place on Israel for future hostage deals, he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy immediate instinct is to say yes, but I want to think about its various aspects, in a very realistic and responsible way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Israel released some 4,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, Gazan terror suspects detained during the war, along with the bodies of Palestinian terrorists, in exchange for the Israeli hostages returned by Hamas. In 2011, a Netanyahu-led government freed 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the October 7, 2023, invasion, in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the press conference, Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slammed Netanyahu for \u201ctaking credit\u201d for the return of the last of 251 hostages who were taken to Gaza in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who wants to take credit for the hostages who returned must also take responsibility for the dead, the murdered, and for the greatest disaster to befall the Jewish people since the Holocaust,\u201d Lapid added, in reference to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack.<\/p>\n

PM warns against Iran making \u2018grave mistake\u2019 of hitting Israel<\/p>\n

In the shadow of a potential US strike on Iran, Netanyahu repeated the warning he made against Tehran last week that if it attacks Israel, Jerusalem will respond harshly. Iran has threatened to attack Israel if struck by the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, it is true \u2014 the Iranian axis is trying to recover \u2014 but we will not allow it to do so. If Iran makes the grave mistake of attacking Israel, we will respond with a force Iran has never seen before,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tCommuters walk past an anti-US billboard installed on a building at the Enqelab Square in Tehran on January 26, 2026. (ATTA KENARE \/ AFP)<\/p>\n

The two countries fought a 12-day air war in June 2025 that saw the US strike Iran\u2019s nuclear program. Netanyahu\u00a0declined to comment directly on reports that the US is in indirect contact with Iran through Arab mediators about finding a diplomatic solution to the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US is in constant contact with us,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to determine for President Trump what he does or doesn\u2019t do. Whether he speaks or doesn\u2019t speak. Those are his decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fully updated,\u201d said the prime minister.<\/p>\n

PM: Urich \u2018did not speak a single word to me about Qatar\u2019<\/p>\n

Netanyahu asserted his innocence while addressing suspicions surrounding his adviser Jonatan Urich in the so-called Qatargate affair.<\/p>\n

Asked why he has not disavowed Urich in light of accusations that he took Qatari money to spearhead a public relations campaign for Doha while working in the Prime Minister\u2019s Office, Netanyahu claimed that \u201cJonatan Urich did not speak a single word to me about Qatar \u2014 not even a syllable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cBut I spoke about Qatar. I criticized Qatar \u2014 not once and not twice \u2014 during the war. I attacked it verbally because I had harsh criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I actually attacked in Qatari territory,\u201d he added, referring to the failed strike on Hamas leaders in Doha in September.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tJonatan Urich seen after a court hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, October 27, 2025 (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

He also decried suspicions of illegal activity surrounding his chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, as \u201cone gigantic fake,\u201d in response to a question about the investigation of wrongdoing in an alleged meeting between Braverman and Netanyahu\u2019s former spokesman, Eli Feldstein.<\/p>\n

He charged that the investigation is part of a broader trend, where \u201ctime after time after time they did this to senior figures in the state. And in the end it came out completely baseless,\u201d apparently referring to the judicial system. Netanyahu, who is himself on trial for corruption charges, decried the proceedings as a \u201cterrible witchhunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Premier urges against early elections<\/p>\n

Asked whether he believes the state budget, and the bill exempting yeshiva students from the draft,\u00a0 will pass in their second and third readings, and whether this year\u2019s election will be held on schedule, Netanyahu replied: \u201cThat is both my aspiration and my hope. And I think everyone knows what a sensitive and unusual situation we are in. The last thing Israel needs in this situation is an election.\u201d<\/p>\n

By law, an election must be held by the end of October. If the budget fails to pass or the Knesset disperses, an election will be held earlier. Parties in Netanyahu\u2019s government have recently threatened to bring down the government over disagreements surrounding the budget and the draft exemption bill.<\/p>\n

Alluding to the ultra-Orthodox parties, he claimed those from his bloc who might consider partnering with his opponents, led by Naftali Bennett and Lapid, would in effect be joining forces with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Movement, referencing the Ra\u2019am party led by Mansour Abbas, a partner in the 2021-22 Bennett-Lapid coalition.<\/p>\n

Asked about taking responsibility for the October 7, 2023, failures, Netanyahu said \u201ceveryone will take their responsibility\u201d once \u201cthe truth\u201d is credibly established. Rather than a powerhouse state commission of inquiry, as most Israelis have consistently told pollsters is required, the prime minister again advanced his preferred inquiry panel appointed by government and opposition, citing the US inquiry into 9\/11 as a precedent. The opposition has dismissed the idea, but the coalition is nonetheless advancing legislation to this effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his assertion that Israel will not allow Gaza\u2019s reconstruction before terror groups in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-261033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}