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On the second day of a US diplomatic push in Israel aimed at shoring up the fragile Gaza ceasefire with Hamas, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Wednesday dismissed suggestions that his country is a client state of Washington, calling the idea “hogwash”.
Despite the US providing an estimated 68% of Israel’s foreign-sourced weapons, in response to a question whether Israel was beholden to Washington, Netanyahu said: ‘‘I want to put it very clearly. One week they say that Israel controls the United States. A week later they say the United States controls Israel. This is hogwash.”
At the end of a meeting with US vice president, JD Vance, in Jerusalem, part of a US diplomatic blitz in support of the truce plan to end the fighting, Netanyahu added: ‘‘We have a partnership, an alliance of partners, who share common values and common goals. We can have discussions, we can have disagreements here and there, but on the whole, I have to say that in the past year we’ve had agreement – agreement not only on goals but how to reach them.”
“We don’t want a vassal state, and that’s not what Israel is,” Vance replied. “We don’t want a client state, and that’s not what Israel is. We want a partnership. We want an ally here.”
Vance’s visit follows that of the US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Their objective, according to analysts, was to calm tensions after the ceasefire has been shaken by repeated violations since it was put in place on 10 October, with Palestinian militants killing two Israeli soldiers and Israel bombing Gaza on Sunday.
The US vice president warned Wednesday of the tough task ahead in disarming Hamas and building a peaceful future for Gaza, as Washington sought to reassure Israel over the next steps of the truce, including the recovery of the remaining bodies of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the enclave and, eventually, the rebuilding of the devastated Palestinian territory.
“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” Vance said.
He cited an “international security force” as one of the bodies that would have to be set up in Gaza. Under Trump’s 20-point plan, this military mission would keep the peace in Gaza as Israel withdraws.
Vance said on Tuesday there would be a “constructive role” for Turkey to play as the truce moved towards the next stage.
“A lot of our Israeli friends [will be] working together with a lot of Americans to actually mediate this entire ceasefire process, to get some of the critical infrastructure off the ground,” Vance said, after talks with Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
However, reports that Israel’s outspoken critic and regional rival Turkey could provide troops have rattled Israeli opinion.
Netanyahu hinted on Wednesday at his opposition to any role for Turkish security forces in the Strip.
Responding to a question about the idea of Turkish security forces in Gaza, Netanyahu said: “We will decide together about that. So I have very strong opinions about that. Want to guess what they are?”
Turkey, which helped persuade Hamas to accept Trump’s plan, has said it would take part in the international task force to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire, and that its armed forces could serve in a military or civilian capacity as needed.
Despite the warm words exchanged between Israel and the US and cautious optimism over Gaza’s future, the ceasefire remains fragile, with both sides trading blame over repeated violations of the truce.
The Palestinian news agency said Israel had violated the ceasefire 80 times and killed at least 80 Palestinians in the past 11 days. Israel, in turn, has accused Hamas of delaying the return of hostages’ bodies, which it says is a violation of the ceasefire deal.
Hamas has sent back 15 bodies – including two received from the Red Cross on Tuesday night named as Aryeh Zalmanovich and Tamir Adar – but still needs to hand over 13 more.
The militant group has said locating the remains will take time as many are buried under rubble.
Palestinians are still being killed by Israeli forces as they cross over the “yellow line” that marks Israeli troop withdrawals. Civil defence officials have said Palestinians have no idea where the line is on the ground. The Israeli military said it had begun to mark the yellow line on Tuesday with large yellow concrete blocks placed every 200 metres.
