Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu revealed in an interview with ABC News last night that Israel’s militarily must occupy Gaza for an indefinite period of time in order to keep Israel safe from terrorists like Hamas.

Below is the reporting via Times of Israel:

Israel will have “security responsibility” over the Gaza Strip for some time after its war against Hamas ends, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview aired Monday night.

How Israel intends to handle Gaza’s postwar future remains an open and burning question as Israeli forces push deeper into the enclave amid a campaign to eliminate the Hamas terror group, which has ruled the Strip for over 15 years.

“I think Israel will for an indefinite period have security responsibility,” Netanyahu told ABC News. “We’ve seen what happens when we don’t have that… security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn’t imagine.”

This is something that I’ve been waiting to hear Netanyahu say and I’m so glad he finally said it. Because it is paramount that Israel occupy Gaza militarily like they do Judea and Samaria. If they just left after eliminating Hamas, then Iran would just form another Hamas terrorist group and more Israelis would end up dying.

A military occupation of Gaza is certainly going to inflame the Muslim world, but as I’ve said previously, Israel doesn’t have any choice if they want to protect themselves from terrorists.

I found the video of Netanyahu’s interview and you can hear it for yourself. His comments about the “security responsibility” come at 7:38: