Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Monday that his country has no intention of controlling the Gaza Strip in the long term.
“We don’t intend to do that,” Sa’ar said in an exclusive interview with Euronows. “There are only security concerns regarding the Gaza Strip.”
Sa’ar’s comments seem to contradict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We’re going to implement (President) Trump’s plan. It’s a good plan and it makes a difference. It means something very simple. It means that Gaza residents who want to leave can leave,” Netanyahu said.
However, Sa’ar added that the Palestinian extremist group Hamas, which currently controls the enclave, is “not part of Gaza’s future.”
“If Hamas is ready to throw away his arms, if they are ready to denounce the Gaza Strip, we can do it on the political path.”
Saa was also accused of “silly” criticism from Western countries that Israel’s military operations in Gaza were disproportionate.
“What do you say about the Western attacks on ISIS that destroyed ISIS? Was it proportional?” he asked, referring to the so-called Islamic states that once ruled much of Syria and Iraq.
Speaking on October 7, 2023, regarding Hamas terrorist attacks on southern Israel that prompted retaliatory operations in Gaza, he said:
Around 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed in the attack, and 250 were taken hostages back to Gaza, of which 20 are believed to be still alive.
Hamasran Health Ministry says more than 58,000 Palestinians were killed in subsequent Israeli military operations.
Watching Hamas release the remaining hostages, the US-sponsored 60-day ceasefire agreement for Gaza has not been realized so far.
Israel shows that if Hamas abandoned his arms and ruled Gaza, it will be willing to end all hostility.
Sa’ar is participating in Brussels EU South Region The Minister’s Meeting is a rally aimed at deepening EU cooperation with Israel and cooperation with nine other Southern partners, including Palestine, Syria and Libya.
That’s first time Israel and Palestine have been represented at a high level in Brussels since the start of the war in Gaza.
Both sides indicate that they have no plans to meet. Direct negotiations between Palestinian authorities, the West Bank government and Israel have been stagnating for more than a decade, with many observers questioning the feasibility of solutions for the two states.
Sa’ar’s visit also coincides with a meeting of 27 EU foreign ministers on Tuesday. It aims to discuss a thorough list of 10 possibilities for the EU to address Israel’s violation of the EU Israeli Association Agreement that it failed to respect Palestine human rights.
It will also be held in the last few days. A contract brokered by the head of foreign policy in the EU Kaja Kallas; Improve the flow of assistance to Gaza.
Sa’ar defended the agreement with the crows, saying fuel had already been in the gastronomy hospitals and water facilities in Gaza.
“But the only limitation or only problem we have here is that we can’t access the aid as Hamas has done in the last 21 months,” he said.
In its final humanitarian renewal on July 9, the United Nations estimated that a third of Gazan go daily without eating, leaving more people at risk of starvation. Health services are facing impending closures due to fuel shortages.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of forfeiture aid aimed at civilians.
The minister also called the list of EU options in retaliation for Israel’s violation of the EU Israeli Association Agreement “very distorted.”
These options include suspending visa-free travel and blocking imports from Jewish settlements, according to documents issued by the crow’s office seen by Euroneuz.
“Even if we thought this process was unfair, it was very distorted, and it gave us the answers and the facts,” Sa’ar said. “I hope tomorrow that member states that believe opposition to Israel is not in the EU’s interests will win.”
Here is the complete interview transcript:
EuroNews: Minister, let’s start with a visit to Brussels. This is the first time that Israel and the Palestinian side have been represented at a high level in Brussels since the terrorist attacks on October 7th and subsequent Israeli military action. What are Israel’s expectations for a visit here?
Gideon Sa’ar: I was invited to the High Representative and the Mediterranean Commissioner for this meeting. We believe this is important in the context of EU relations with the Middle East and North African countries. And it’s a good opportunity to exchange opinions on partnerships and what can make a better partnership, and of course, I use it to hold bilateral meetings and meet the high representative Kajakaras, we are in close contact regularly. But basically, I think it’s a good idea to bring the EU to this kind of conference along with the southern and adjacent states.
Euronows: Minister, you said there are many meetings planned, including high representatives of the EU. Are you planning a meeting with Palestinian Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian while you are in Brussels?
Sa’ar: No, it’s now public that they said they wouldn’t see me, but we’ve never asked for a meeting, so that’s very strange. Unfortunately, we have very low expectations from the PA (Palestinian authorities). It sponsors terrorism and pays terrorists and terrorist families accordingly for the crimes committed accordingly, continuing to incite textbooks, schools, kindergartens, mosques and media. And we learned a long time ago that they had no intention of changing these fundamentals.
Euronows: Minister, you said there is no bilateral meeting request of this kind from the Palestinian Foreign Minister. If you have a request, will you be open to this possibility?
SA’AR: They told you (question us) they made it publicly that they wouldn’t do so, send out the announcement they made, they wouldn’t meet someone from the occupying country or something like that.
So, as you know, it’s not an open or unopen question. They announced it. We didn’t make any announcements, but in reality it wasn’t that important, nor was it something I thought of before seeing the announcement a few minutes ago.
Euronows: Regarding Israel’s cooperation with the European Union, senior EU official Kaja Kallas said Thursday that the EU negotiated what is called a major improvement in humanitarian access to Gaza, including an increase in food trucks and an agreement to protect the livelihoods of aid workers. So, how is the implementation happening? Is Israel willing to improve access to humanitarian assistance to Gaza?
Sa’ar: First of all, I made a cabinet decision nine days ago and followed my ground needs. And we addressed our needs when we analyzed them. This decision came after a dialogue with the EU. The issues mentioned by the EU were also reasonable and related to the analysis of ground conditions.
There is no problem in promoting this. We promote it all together. For example, for a few days, fuel is in humanitarian facilities such as hospitals and water facilities. And of course, there were a few other requests that we couldn’t agree on, but basically everything that’s reasonable and is open to what we need. The only limitation or only problem we have here is that we are unable to access the aid as Hamas has done in the last 21 months, making it an important financial resource for Hamas in Gaza. This is of course extremely dangerous as this war can be forever. In other words, I don’t want this war to be eternal. So we must cut back on Hamas and humanitarian aid, providing people with direct assistance, or where it is needed, and not Hamas. If this is the approach, we are always open to dialogue. We proposed this dialogue even before the FAC (Foreign Council) took place in May, but after the final FAC in June, Kaja Kallas agreed and we were pleased to have moved it forward. And like I said before, we’ve already implemented it.
Euronows: Still, the minister, the EU’s top diplomats will provide a list of 10 possibilities to respond to Israeli actions in Gaza during this week’s Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels. These options also include suspending visa-free travel and blocking imports from Jewish settlements, in response to what Brussels calls a violation of Israel’s EU-Israel Association Agreement. Now, in this case, the European Union is very strict. How do you respond to that?
SA’AR: First of all, the EU has never used this Article 2 in any state or entity of any kind. We recommend that you consider sanctions against the PA. Because they sponsor terrorism and encourage terrorism, and because of the instigation they still carry out in the education system. Anyway, these efforts or these attempts to take action against Israel have been opposed by Member States, and this is why they were not transferred.
And now I believe there is even stronger opposition among member states to do it after it has been proven. Dialogue with Israel is effective and if it is a true dialogue, we are always open and of course we are a sovereign nation, but we always act in accordance with the national interest and continue to do so.
But frankly, our relationship with the EU is important to us. This is why, even if we think this process is unfair, it gives the fact that it finds it highly distorted, gives answers, and demonstrates that it is selecting Israel in an unfair way, and is not constructive. But we always like to be involved and this is what we did. I also hope that tomorrow, member states that thought it was not in the EU’s interest to oppose Israel would win.
Euronows: Ministers, except for the EU, have other bodies, such as the United Nations, who have expressed criticism of Israel to block access to the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza, for example. If I cite UN figures, they said that over the past six weeks, as many as 800 people have died in aid centres and blocked access to humanitarian organisations. What is your reaction to this?
SA’AR: This is Hamas, the people who work and are threatening people and shooting people to prevent them from coming to these humanitarian centres. Where is the criticism of Hamas? In other words, Israel has promoted the gateway to this initiative to empower quantities and to give them directly to people, helping people in need.
This is an example of how Israel is still involved in promoting humanitarian assistance in highly complex situations. And it was Hamas who tried to block it, threaten people, try to kill people, try to kill people, kill people, kill people, kill humanitarian workers, including Palestinians, kill the Americans involved. We may not be surprised because the United Nations (UN) we know for a long time is a very anti-Israel biased organization, and people with a particular moral approach, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have expressed sanctions on one of its staff a few days ago.
Therefore, everyone needs to check the situation on the ground. While checking the situation on earth, everyone needs to understand that Hamas is the only person responsible for this war. Not only did they start the war on October 7th, but they are responsible for its continued existence. They still hold 50 Israeli hostages, refusing to release them, torture them, preventing access to the Red Cross, and refusing to lay their arms. So Hamas is the one responsible for the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians, and the victims of Israelis and Palestinians.
Euronows: Minister, since the 7th October and Hamas attacks, let me ask, there have also been a lot of criticism about how proportional Israel’s response is. Do you think you’re still proportional?
Sa’ar: That’s a ridiculous criticism. What do you think about the Western attacks on ISIS that destroyed the state of ISIS? Was it proportional? What is the context? The context is a response to the massacre of 1,200 people. Should Israel agree with the existence of this terrorist nation, a mile from its community? In this case, what is proportional? These terrorist states should be excluded as states. And we are fighting established troops. It’s a terrorist state.
And here, if anyone can criticize Israel, it is because of the way this entity has been around Israel since 20 years since the day Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and threw people. Do you think other countries do it differently? Do you imagine other countries dealing with it gently? It’s a hypocritical criticism, it’s an outrageous criticism, and we reject it.
By the way, from a proportional perspective, there are no other wars. When I check the victims between terrorists and civilians, I think it’s the best in terms of collateral damage. The world’s military did not have a better proportion of terrorists to civilian casualties than the IDF. None of them, whether democratic or undemocratic.
EuroNews: Minister of Israel’s Operations since October 7th…
Sa’ar: There are no Israeli businesses. Since October 7th, Israel, let’s put the fact that you’ve been twisted over and over again. Israel has been attacked from all sides since October 7th. Lebanon, attacked by Hezbollah. He was attacked from the Gaza Strip by Hamas. He was attacked twice by Iran. Attacked by the Houtis of Yemen, 2,000 km from our border. It was attacked by Shia militias in Iraq. Israel responded, retaliated against attacks in all these aspects, and never launched a war on any of these aspects. They are simple facts.
EuroNews: Minister, how do you see when retaliation ends?
Sa’ar: It’s not retaliation, it’s not retaliation. There is an international consensus. Hamas has no control over the Gaza Strip and cannot become a part of the Gaza Strip’s future. Everyone in the world says so, so the only problem is how to achieve it if it cannot be achieved by political means. We like it. War is by no means an ideology. If there are no other options, military means can be used. If Hamas is ready to put his arms, if he is ready to denounce the Gaza Strip, we can do it on the political path. Until now, they hadn’t agreed to that.
So this is why it must continue under extremely complicated circumstances, as we need to make every effort not to minimize the number of civilian casualties. We must consider that they still hold our hostages, in their hands, in the tunnels. And of course, these two facts complicate the situation, but essentially, the war could end tomorrow and it could have ended yesterday. The only question is whether this international objective or this objective agreed upon by everyone in the international community will be achieved. Once that is achieved, the war will end.
EuroNews: Let me give you a quick question now about the hostage situation. According to one recent poll, 74% of Israelis support an agreement with Hamas, releasing all hostages at once in exchange for the end of the Gaza War. The current understanding is that negotiations are underway for a partial release or release of the ruins of 10 living hostages and 18 hostages.
Sa’ar: I certainly agree to release all hostages. Of course, the problem is different. The problem is that Hamas is trying to dictate the condition that he will use hostages to end this war. This is one of the reasons why they took hostages in the first place. So they make certain requests to instruct us to force our will, and this does not happen. Of course, we prefer to do full trade, but we do not agree to the terms. One of Hamas’ conditions is that they are not ready to blame, that they want to keep their arms. And this would make them the most powerful army in the post-war Gaza Strip.
And of course, if that were the case, they will continue their war with Israel. And it hurts not only Israel’s security, but also regional stability. Because we have already seen their attacks on October 7th sparked a regional war. We agree to all sorts of deals in the context of releasing hostages. Hamas is not prepared to use hostages to impose conditions for surrender.
EuroNews: Minister, finally, if Hamas is unarmed and disarmed, who will control Gaza?
Sa’ar: I’m not going to do that. There are only security concerns regarding the Gaza Strip. We reminded us that we left the Gaza Strip 20 years ago in 2005. All the villages in the Gaza Strip have been demolished. From there, all military bases will be demolished. They also dismantled the graves from the cemetery there and even moved them. And there was no reason for the Gaza Strip to go into war with Israel.
EuroNews: Minister, if I remember correctly, you were against that withdrawal in 2005.
Sa’ar: Of course I was against that. One-sided withdrawal is devastating, and I think that was proven in that case. A year and a half after our withdrawal, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip. Even those who supported that at the time agreed that it was a mistake, I am proud to vote against it, but the problem was that what Israel did was withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. This is the fact that international public opinion forgets that we have done it completely, completely. So, what was the response? The response was that they built the largest terrorist kingdom on the planet, miles from our community. So, again, I have no other interests, but no security interest. And this is what we will implement in future arrangements.
