Haifa: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday that he stands against the establishment of a Palestinian state in the current circumstances, adding that it would be ruled by the Hamas movement.
“In one word, no,” Saar told reporters when asked to share his opinion on the issue.
When Israel withdrew its troops from the Gaza Strip in 1993 under the Oslo Accords, the security situation in the country immediately worsened, the top diplomat added.
Furthermore, if a Palestinian state is created now, the Hamas movement would reign there supreme, as it did in the Gaza Strip, Saar said.
“The creation of a Palestinian state today would mean the creation of a Hamas state. We saw that after we left the Gaza Strip, it took only a year before Hamas took control of Gaza. We do not want this to happen in Judea and Samaria. That is why I do not think this position is realistic,” the minister added.
Israel has been conducting military operations in the Gaza Strip in response to the attack on its territory by Palestinian movement Hamas on October 7, 2023.