A Palestinian man inspects the damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a building in Gaza City’s Daraj neighbourhood on December 17, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas militants.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday (December 17, 2024) that his country’s forces would be free to act in the Gaza Strip even after its war with Hamas ends.

“After eliminating Hamas’s military and governmental capabilities in Gaza, Israel would have security control over Gaza with complete freedom of action” for the Israeli military, Mr. Katz said in a post on X, noting that it was his own “position”.

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Mr. Katz said that Israel’s future control over Gaza should be “exactly like in Judea and Samaria”, the biblical names for the West Bank which Israel has occupied since 1967 and where its forces conduct frequent raids.

The question of Gaza’s post-war governance has remained unresolved, more than a year since Israel vowed to crush Hamas in retaliation for its October 7, 2023 attack.

Mr. Katz’s predecessor Yoav Gallant had voiced firm opposition to any prolonged Israeli control of Gaza, from which Israel withdrew troops and settlers in 2005 after decades of direct rule.

In May, then as Defence Minister, Mr. Gallant said that he would “not agree to the establishment of an Israeli military administration in Gaza”.

“Israel must not have civilian control over the Gaza Strip,” Mr. Gallant said at the time, urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to devise a post-war plan for the territory.

Mr. Netanyahu sacked Mr. Gallant in November, citing disagreements over war policies.

The Israeli leader replaced Mr. Gallant with Mr. Katz, a former Foreign Minister who Israeli analysts say is more likely to endorse the Mr. Netanyahu’s views.

Hamas seized full control of Gaza in 2007, capping months of clashes with other Palestinian factions after it won legislative elections the year before.

The Hamas attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures and includes hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 45,028 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

Jerusalem:

 Israel Katz, formerly Israel’s foreign minister, has been appointed defence minister after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked Yoav Gallant from the post.

Netanyahu said he no longer had trust in Gallant’s management of Israel’s military operations, which include an ongoing war in Gaza and Lebanon.

Below are some facts about Katz:

* Born in 1955 in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon, Katz was drafted into the military in 1973 and served as a paratrooper, leaving the service in 1977. He has not served in any senior military command position, unlike his predecessor Gallant, who had been a general before becoming defence minister in 2022.

* Katz, a member of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, has been a member of the Knesset (parliament) since 1998. In the Knesset, he served on several committees including those covering foreign affairs, defence and justice.

* He has held several ministerial posts in the past two decades, including agriculture, transport, intelligence, finance and energy portfolios. He was appointed foreign minister in 2019.

* As foreign minister, Katz declared Antonio Guterres persona non grata in October over what he said was the U.N. secretary-general’s failure to “unequivocally” condemn Iran’s missile attack on Israel and for what he described as antisemitic and anti-Israel conduct.

* Also in October, he ordered his ministry to start legal proceedings against French President Emmanuel Macron after Paris banned Israeli firms from participating in an upcoming military naval trade show.

* Katz has been a low profile figure in Israeli-U.S. interactions during U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s 11 trips to Israel since Oct. 7, 2023. The top U.S. diplomat has held only a few meetings with Katz, while Blinken regularly met with Gallant.

* Katz studied as an undergraduate and graduate at Israel’s Hebrew University. He is married with two children.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Israel Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded to India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s message on the occasion of Israel’s 76th Independence Day.
| Photo Credit: X/@DrSJaishankar

Israel and India will continue to deepen their bilateral ties and lead to greater prosperity, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on May 14.

Mr. Katz was responding to India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s message on the occasion of Israel’s 76th Independence Day.

“Thank you for the warm wishes, FM @DrSJaishankar. In celebration of our Independence Day, Israel and India will continue to deepen our ties and lead to greater prosperity,” Mr. Katz said in a post on X.

Earlier in the morning, Mr. Jaishankar posted on X a 2:03-minute video showcasing the India-Israel relationship through photos of various bilateral meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, himself, and other Indian Ministers with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Ministers.

“Congratulate FM @Israel_katz and the people of Israel on the occasion of the 76th anniversary of Israel’s Independence. Mazel Tov!,” Mr. Jaishankar posted along with the video and repeated the same message in another post in Hebrew.

Meanwhile, President Droupadi Murmu wished her Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog as she said on X, “I join the people of India in conveying our best wishes to President @Isaac_Herzog, and the people of Israel on the 76th anniversary of Israel’s independence.”

Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla too took to X to post his greetings to his counterpart Amir Ohana, the Speaker of The Knesset: “On the occasion of Israel’s 76th anniversary of independence, I congratulate Speaker of the Knesset @AmirOhana and the people of Israel.”

Both Ms. Murmu and Mr. Birla also included greetings in Hebrew.

“Thank you, my dear friend @ombirlakota. May the friendship between our nations grow stronger,” Mr. Ohana replied to Mr. Birla and also added a line in Devnagari script in Hindi, loosely translated as, “Thank you my dear friend Om Birla. May the friendship between our countries be stronger.”

President of Colombia Gustavo Petro gives a speech as part of the 2024 International Workers Day in Bogota, Colombia, on May 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Colombian President Gustavo Petro on May 1 announced his government will break diplomatic relations with Israel effective May 2 in the latest escalation of tensions between the countries over the Israel-Hamas war.

Mr. Petro again described Israel’s siege of Gaza as “genocide.” He previously suspended purchases of weapons from Israel and compared that country’s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany.

“Tomorrow, diplomatic relations with the State of Israel will be broken … for having a genocidal President,” Mr. Petro said during an International Workers’ Day march in Colombia’s capital. “If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die.”

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz quickly rebuked Mr. Petro’s comments on the platform X.

“History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians,” he said.

Weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the current war in Gaza and killed some 1,200 people, Mr. Petro recalled Colombia’s Ambassador to Israel as he criticized the country’s military offensive.

Historically, Colombia had been one of Israel’s closest partners in Latin America. But relations between the two nations have cooled since Mr. Petro was elected as Colombia’s first leftist President in 2022.

Colombia uses Israeli-built warplanes and machine guns to fight drug cartels and rebel groups, and both countries signed a free trade agreement in 2020.

“Relations between Israel and Colombia always were warm and no antisemitic and hate-filled President will succeed in changing that,” Mr. Katz wrote on April 30. “The state of Israel will continue to defend its citizens without worry and without fear.”

The South American country deepened its military ties with Israel in the late 1980s by purchasing Kfir fighter jets that were used by Colombia’s air force in numerous attacks on remote guerrilla camps that debilitated the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The attacks helped push the group into peace talks that resulted in its disarmament in 2016.

Mr. Petro participated in the march on May 1 in Bogota to promote his proposed health care, pension and labor reforms.