Culture Minister Miki Zohar expressed strong opposition to Israel maintaining military control of the Gaza Strip at the Likud party meeting on Monday evening.

“Whoever is pushing for military rule should know that afterward he’ll be going to the homes of bereaved mothers, of probably hundreds if not more soldiers, and explaining why their children fell.”

In a recording of the meeting, Zohar is heard shouting that military control means “to manage these murderers, manage people who supported terrorism, who encouraged terrorism, who took Hamas as their leader which led to mass murder – I should go be their babysitter?”

He asked his fellow party members to think again about encouraging military control of Gaza. “Think about it before you make statements about it.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said at the meeting that he’s against military control of Gaza because “that will increase military service to four years, we don’t have enough soldiers for it.”

Gallant came under heavy criticism at the meeting for his public statements slamming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. He responded by saying, among other things, that he’s against a Palestinian state and neither Hamas nor Israel should be there.

He added: “I think the least bad alternative is a local [Palestinian] source. There are no international volunteers.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)