Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Gaza cannot become “Hamas-stan” after the end of the war, admitting to a split with America on the future status of the Palestinian territory.

Israel’s prime minister said he would not let post-war Gaza be run by those who “teach, support or fund terrorism”, and would countenance neither “Fatah-stan” nor “Hamas-stan”.

His comments are at odds with US support for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to run Gaza after the war. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the PA, is chairman of Fatah.

Mr Netanyahu admitted his view on the future of the territory diverged from America’s, but said he hoped “agreement will be reached” in a video posted on Twitter.

It came after he provoked a row by claiming that the 1993 attempt to make peace with Palestine killed more people than the Hamas Oct 7 attacks.

‘Oslo was the original sin’

Mr Netanyahu made the remarks at a closed-doors meeting with the foreign affairs and defence committee of the Knesset on Monday, according to several Israeli media reports.

“Oslo was the original sin,” Mr Netanyahu was quoted as saying by the Walla news website, referring to the US-brokered peace deal that laid the groundwork for what would have been a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

“After Oslo, there was an identical number of people killed.”

The Israeli leader appeared to be referring to the period between 1995, when a second Oslo accord was signed, and this year’s attack, taking in the Second Palestinian Intifada from 2000-2005.

More than 1,000 Israelis were killed during the five-year uprising.

Political opponents and critics from within his own party were quick to seize on Mr Netanyahu’s remarks, arguing they were an attempt to deflect blame for the historic security breach that took place on his watch.

Yair Lapid, an opposition leader, called on Mr Netanyahu to resign.

“The state of Israel is at war. We all are going from one funeral to the next, from shiva to shiva,” he said on Tuesday.

‘The nation deserves alternative leadership’

“It is impossible to understand the level of disconnect and cynicism of the prime minister who is conducting a wicked political campaign in wartime with the sole purpose of absolving himself of responsibility, accusing others and sowing hatred. The nation deserves alternative leadership.”

Fellow members of his ruling Likud party also condemned the remarks as insensitive.

“There’s no need to make comparisons at this time. We need to win,” MP Danny Danon told Kan Radio on Tuesday.

“We must not forget that the events of Oct 7 happened in a few hours, with [a number of] losses the state of Israel had never before sustained.”

Mr Netanyahu has faced calls to resign from the families of some of the hostages taken captive by Hamas two months ago.

Relatives of the victims have blamed him for letting the attack happen and doing too little to secure the release of their loved ones.

‘He is campaigning to remain in office’

A leading Israeli newspaper on Tuesday accused the prime minister of also attempting to use Hamas’s attack, which has been described as the nation’s biggest tragedy since the Holocaust, for political gain.

“Netanyahu is in the middle of a campaign that is designed to allow him to remain in office,” Yedioth Ahronoth wrote on Tuesday, condemning him for “pulling out a metaphorical calculator to make the flabbergasting assertion”.

“He won’t baulk at using any trick or play to divert the fire away from him and his failures, and to put wind in the sails of a political campaign that places all the blame on Oslo and/or disengagement, as part of the election campaign he is already running.”

Recent opinion polls show support for Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, has outstripped backing for Mr Netanyahu.