The Palestinians will rule the Gaza Strip after the war, when the Palestinian Islamist movement is “no longer a threat” to Israel, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday, according to AFP.

“Palestinians live” in Gaza, “so Palestinians (will) rule it in the future. The future government of Gaza must come out of the Gaza Strip and be based on forces that do not threaten the state of Israel,” said Yoav Gallant.

Gallant announced on Monday that the intense phase of the war “will soon be over” in the southern Gaza Strip, where Israel is currently carrying out the heaviest strikes.

“We have clearly said that the intensive phase of operations will last for about three months,” “in the south we will get there and it will end soon,” the minister said, adding that “the time will come when we will enter the next phase” of the war in Gaza.

He did not specify what the next phase of the war would be.

On Monday, Hamas released a new video announcing the deaths of two Israeli hostages, men who were kidnapped in southern Israel on October 7 and held in the Gaza Strip since then, AFP reported.

In a video released by the Palestinian Islamist movement, a young woman, also a hostage, can be seen under pressure to declare that the two men she was holding are dead.

In a separate statement, the armed wing of Hamas said they “died during the Zionist bombardment of Gaza.”

on the same topic:

• Gaza: Hamas announced the death of two hostages / Three Palestinians died in clashes with Israeli forces / Guterres calls for an immediate ceasefire