Netanyahu rejects calls to scale back Gaza attacks

Follows Blinken statement on Palestinian state

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday rejected US calls to scale back Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip or take steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state after the war, drawing an immediate scolding from the White House.

The tense back and forth reflected what has become a wide rift between the two allies over the scope of Israel’s war and its plans for the future of the beleaguered territory.

“We obviously see it differently,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.

Netanyahu spoke just a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel would never have “genuine security” without a pathway toward Palestinian independence. Earlier this week, the White House also announced that it was the “right time” for Israel to lower the intensity of its devastating military offensive in Gaza.

In a nationally televised news conference, Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, repeatedly saying that Israel would not halt its offensive until it realizes its goals of destroying Gaza’s Hamas militant group and bringing home all remaining hostages held by Hamas.

He rejected claims by a growing chorus of Israeli critics that those goals are not achievable, vowing to press ahead for many months. “We will not settle for anything short of an absolute victory,” Netanyahu said.

Israel launched the offensive after an unprecedented crossborder attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and took some 250 others hostage. Roughly 130 hostages are believed by Israel to remain in Hamas captivity. The war has stoked tensions across the region, threatening to ignite other conflicts.

Israel’s assault, one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, caused widespread destruction, and uprooted over 80 percent of the territory’s 2.3 million people from their homes.

The staggering cost of the war has led to increasing calls from the international community to halt the offensive. After initially giving Israel wall-towall support in the early days of the war, the United States, Israel’s closest ally, has begun to express misgivings and urged Netanyahu to spell out his vision for postwar Gaza.

The United States has said the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which governs semiautonomous zones in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, should be “revitalized” and return to Gaza. Hamas ousted the authority from Gaza in 2007.

The US has also called for steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Palestinians seek Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem for their state. Those areas were captured by Israel in 1967.

Speaking Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Blinken said the two-state solution was the best way to protect Israel, unify moderate Arab countries, and isolate Israel’s arch-enemy, Iran.

Without a “pathway to a Palestinian state,” he said, Israel would not “get genuine security.”