PA President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank August 18, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman/Pool

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thrown up more doubts about the future of the Gaza Strip, saying that the Palestinian Authority in its current form should not take charge of the coastal enclave.

Israel has vowed to destroy Palestinian group Hamas, which governs Gaza, after its shock Oct. 7 cross-border assault and has launched a full-scale invasion of the territory.

However, it has not spelt out who should rule the enclave once the conflict is over, saying only that Israel would maintain overall security.

Washington has said Israel cannot occupy the enclave after the war, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week saying that the Gaza administration had to be re-unified with the nearby West Bank, parts of which are run by the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday said that the PA could play a future role in governing the Gaza Strip, but Netanyahu indicated late Saturday that he did not want the current PA rulers to be given free rein in Gaza.

At a news conference, Netanyahu aired his long-standing grievances over the PA’s school syllabus, which he says fuels hatred of Israel, and its policy of giving salaries to families of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Such an organization should not take charge of Gaza, he told reporters.

Speaking to NBC News on Sunday, he was even more emphatic.

“We need a different authority. We need a different administration,” Netanyahu said. Asked what sort of body that would be, he replied: “I think it’s too early to say.”

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Abbas, told Reuters the Israelis were seeking to perpetuate divisions between the two Palestinian territories — the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.

“Israeli attempts to separate Gaza from the West Bank will fail, and it will not be allowed, regardless of the pressures,” he told Reuters.

The PA used to run both the West Bank and Gaza but was ousted from the latter in 2007 after a brief civil war with Hamas.

While Western governments want to involve the PA in the future of Gaza, diplomats say, there is also concern that 87-year-old Abbas does not have sufficient authority or support of his people to take charge.

“Right now, there is no clear idea of what might happen in Gaza once the fighting stopped,” a Jerusalem-based diplomat said.