US and Israel differ on Gaza rule after war with Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu says ‘will not repeat mistake of Oslo’

In the first evident show of fissure, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that despite being allies, Israel and the United States have different opinions on what might follow once Israel stops bombing Gaza. The remarks come even as Israel has been enjoying complete support from the US in its goal to ‘eliminate’ Hamas. 

Reiterating his past refusal to countenance a return to Gaza rule of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas, Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that Gaza "will be neither Hamas-stan nor 'Fatah-stan'". Fatah is Abbas's faction.

"I would like to clarify my position: I will not allow Israel to repeat the mistake of Oslo," Netanyahu said without clarifying which mistake he was referring to.

The 1993 Oslo Accords established limited Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that Israel is starting to lose support from the international community with its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza that has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians.

"They're starting to lose that support," Biden told a campaign fundraising event in Washington. Biden also said Netanyahu needs to change his hardline government.

On Tuesday, secretary general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization Hussein Al-Sheikh responded to reports that the Israeli premier had compared the Oslo Accords to Hamas 7 October attack by saying both had caused a similar amount of Israeli deaths.

"Benjamin Netanyahu's statement equating the Oslo Accords with what happened on October 7 confirms his war against all Palestinians," Al-Sheikh said. “We say to Netanyahu that Oslo died under the treads of his tanks, sweeping through our cities, villages, and camps from Jenin to Rafah.”

Israeli forces carried out strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, crushing Palestinians in homes, as the military pressed ahead with an offensive that officials say could go on for weeks or months, even while global calls for a cease-fire leave Israel and its main ally, the United States, increasingly isolated.

The war ignited by Hamas’ October 7 attack into southern Israel has already brought unprecedented death and destruction to the impoverished coastal enclave, with much of northern Gaza obliterated, more than 18,000 Palestinians killed and over 80% of the population of 2.3 million pushed from their homes.

(With agency inputs)