Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed on Saturday that the Israeli government’s policy “does not agree with the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian state.”
On Friday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi raised the possibility of the future Palestinian state being “demilitarized with the presence of temporary international security forces to ensure its and Israel’s security.”
In November 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that he would accept a “demilitarized” Palestinian state as long as it possessed no military power and recognized Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, as reported by the Voice of America website at the time.
Speaking to the Al-Hurra website, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Hayat said that the year 2009 happened 14 years ago, adding: “Many things have changed since then.”
He continued: “It is true that Netanyahu spoke throughout 2009 and 2010 of a two-state solution with a (demilitarized) Palestinian state, but this is not government policy.
He continued: “Now I remind you that the Gaza Strip should have been (demilitarized), but the truth is that Hamas has smuggled weapons into the Strip,” adding that the situation is “not the same.”
On Friday, Sisi, during a joint press conference in Cairo with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, said: “We said that we are ready for the demilitarization of this country, and also that there are guarantees of forces, be they NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) or the United Nations, or Arab or American forces, as you see fit, until we have achieved security for both states, the nascent Palestinian state and the Israeli state.”
Al-Sisi added that the political solution requiring the creation of a Palestinian state on the borders of 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, is still far-fetched.
The Egyptian president stressed that “reviving the path of the two-state solution is an exhausted idea and may not be what is needed.”
He added: “We need to move differently, that is, recognize the Palestinian state and include it in the United Nations… This gives seriousness.”
Al-Sisi’s speech came on the day that a truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip came into force, which will be accompanied by the release of hostages held by Hamas and other Palestinian factions in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
Qatar, together with Egypt and the United States, has reached a four-day ceasefire agreement, which can be extended, which includes the exchange of 50 hostages held in Gaza for 150 Palestinians held in Israel.
Hamas released 24 people on Friday, including 13 Israeli women and children, 10 Thais and one Filipino, while Israel released 39 Palestinians from its prisons.
War broke out between Israel and Hamas after a surprise attack launched by the movement on military sites and residential areas adjacent to the Gaza Strip, which led to the killing of 1,200 people, most of them civilians, including women and children , and 239 people were abducted, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel responded with intense air, sea and land bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, followed by a ground operation. The death toll in Gaza reached 14,854 people, including 6,150 children and more than 4,000 women, as well as wounding around 36,000 people. The number of missing people has reached almost 7,000 missing people, according to Hamas authorities.