US says it opposes ‘reoccupation’ of Gaza by Israel

The United States says it opposes Israel resuming long-term control of the Gaza Strip.

“Our viewpoint is that Palestinians must be at the forefront of these decisions and Gaza is Palestinian land and it will remain Palestinian land,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel tells reporters.

“Generally speaking, we do not support the reoccupation of Gaza and neither does Israel,” he says.

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, which it captured from Egypt in the 1967 Six Day War, in 2005. It later imposed a blockade after the Hamas terror group seized control of the territory and used it to fire rockets at Israeli population centers.

Patel says that the United States agrees “there is no returning to the October 6 status quo,” referring to the day before Hamas’s massive onslaught.

“Israel and the region must be secure and Gaza should and can no longer be a base from which to launch terror attacks against the people of Israel or anyone else,” Patel says.

Netanyahu, in an interview yesterday with ABC News, said that Israel would assume “overall security” over Gaza “for an indefinite period” after the war.