Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Monday that Israel had not yet come to a decision on whether it would impose military governance in Gaza.

“It has not yet been decided by our cabinet,” Sa’ar said during a Jerusalem press conference, responding to a question from The Times of Israel.

Another Israeli official told The Times of Israel later Monday that the government had not yet decided on what it will do “on the civilian side” in Gaza, including on the question of instituting military rule.

Jerusalem has until now avoided pushing for military rule of the Strip, but with a new IDF chief of staff and defense minister — not to mention a new president in the White House — Israel’s thinking appears to have changed, The Washington Post reported, citing current and former Israeli officials, as well as others briefed on the developments.

During a visit to Washington, DC, this week, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will discuss with senior US officials a plan for Israeli military control over Gaza, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Sunday.

Last September, Netanyahu asked the IDF to examine the possibility of taking over aid distribution, to prevent Hamas from pilfering supplies, but both then-defense minister Yoav Gallant and then-IDF chief of staff Herzl Halevi opposed the idea.

However, by February, Israeli officials were telling international aid agencies of plans for humanitarian resources to be screened in “logistic hubs” set up by Israel, some agency officials told the US newspaper.

Standing alongside European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas at a Monday press conference, Sa’ar said that when Israel once again allows aid into Gaza, “it will be done in a different way than it happened during the first 17 months of this war.

“I will not elaborate how, but in a way that will not empower Hamas, will not give [it] the opportunity to use it as a financial agent, and the financial engine that is helping [its] military efforts,” said Sa’ar.

Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid intended for Gazan civilians.

Eli Sharabi, a former hostage released by Hamas in Gaza last month, described in an address to the UN last week how Hamas terrorists stole UN aid and withheld it from Israeli hostages and Gazan civilians.

“I saw Hamas terrorists carrying boxes with the UN and UNWRA emblems on them into the tunnels, dozens and dozens of boxes, paid for by your governments,” Sharabi said.

Sa’ar insisted that Israel is following international law in the wake of its announcement three weeks ago that it would block all aid from entering Gaza.

“No country is obliged to facilitate a war against itself,” Sa’ar said. “Israel must not be held to a different standard.”

Kallas was unconvinced by Israel’s arguments.

“The fundamental steps here are reinstating the ceasefire, ensuring the release of all hostages and resuming the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza with the goal of a permanent ceasefire,” she said to Sa’ar.

“Israel’s security is very important to the European Union, but also the rights of Palestinians need to be respected,” Kallas continued.

The military resumed fighting in Gaza last week at the instruction of Netanyahu, who vowed that all negotiations for a hostage deal moving forward would be held under fire, after Hamas rejected proposals to extend phase one of the ceasefire.

Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Kallas lamented the resumption of fighting in Gaza, arguing that “resuming negotiations is the only feasible way to end the suffering on all sides.”

Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes across Gaza on Sunday, killing two senior Hamas officials. The Israel Defense Forces also indicated it was preparing to expand ground operations, redeploying an armored division that had been stationed on the border with Lebanon.

“Violence feeds more violence,” Kallas said, adding that the renewed fighting is causing “unbearable uncertainty” for the hostages and their families, and “horror and death for the Palestinian people.”

“Israelis must be able to feel safe in their own homes,” she stressed. “Israel has the right to self-defense against terror attacks, whether from Hamas, the Houthis, or Hezbollah. However, military actions must be proportionate.”

Kallas also said that the EU welcomes Egypt’s plan for Gaza reconstruction and that the bloc sees “no role for Hamas in the future governance of Gaza.”

Responding to a question about Israeli strikes in Syria, Kallas said that “these things are unnecessary because Syria is right now not attacking Israel, and that feeds more radicalization that is also against Israel, which we don’t want to see.”

Israel has said it will continue to act against all threats in Syria as the country’s new regime grapples with consolidating power in the wake of the collapse of the decades-long rule of the Assad family.

After a deadly terror attack in northern Israel on Monday morning, Sa’ar sought to pin the assault on the Palestinian Authority, telling reporters that the attack “is a result of the ongoing incitement of the Palestinian Authority.”

An elderly driver was shot dead, and a soldier was seriously injured in the attack. The alleged terrorist was killed by Border Police officers who happened to be passing by the scene of the attack, near the Lower Galilee city of Yokne’am.

According to an Israeli readout, Sa’ar panned PA President Mahmoud Abbas in his meeting with Kallas, insisting that he “says one thing in English and another in Arabic. He lies about reforms in the Palestinian Authority while continuing to pay salaries to terrorists and their families.”

After meeting with Sa’ar, President Isaac Herzog and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, Kallas headed to Ramallah to meet with Abbas and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa.

Visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum with Kallas, Sa’ar said the “new antisemitism is the persecution of the State of Israel, the state of the Jewish people. It uses demonization, delegitimization and double standards towards the Jewish state.”

“The so-called international courts and institutions are trying to tie Israel’s hands,” said Sa’ar. “They are attempting to assassinate its sacred right to self-defense.”

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last year for Netanyahu and his former defense minister Gallant, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.

Sa’ar said it was “only natural” for Israel to expect the European Union’s support in the ongoing conflict against Islamic terrorism.

“We are now fighting the war of the free world. Iran, Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah are attacking us because we are nearby. But make no mistake, the war is against Western civilization. Against its values and its ways of life,” he said.