Israel will never withdraw all its troops from the Gaza Strip, Defense Minister Israel Katz said during a conference arranged by a pro-settler newspaper on Thursday, vowing to create a broad security zone around the Palestinian enclave and allow settlement building in the territory's north.
"In Gaza, Israel will never fully withdraw. There will be a significant security area inside the Gaza Strip," Katz said.
This would remain the case, even in the event of a transition to the second phase of U.S. President Donald Trump's peace plan and disarmament by Palestinian resistance group Hamas, he added.
The security zone would run within the Gaza Strip, Katz said. He added that in the northern part of the coastal strip, Israeli settlement cores could be created that he claims would protect the security zone.
Katz, a member of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, was once again contradicting elements of the Trump peace plan, which provides for a phased withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
