JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, facing an election year, has doubled down on his decades-long opposition to a Palestinian state.
He has also reasserted Israel's demand that Hamas be demilitarized. "Either this will happen the easy way or it will happen the hard way," he said Sunday.
The Israeli prime minister was speaking ahead of Sunday's cabinet meeting.
"Now I want to address two specific issues," he said.
"The first issue is the subject of the alleged 'non-demilitarization' of the part of Gaza that is in the hands of Hamas. There will be no such thing. Even in the 20-point plan, and in everything else, this territory will be demilitarized, and Hamas will be disarmed. Either this will happen the easy way or it will happen the hard way. This is what I said, and this is what President Trump also said," Mr Netanyahu told his cabinet.
"And regarding a Palestinian state: Our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory west of the Jordan River, this opposition is existing, valid, and has not changed one bit."
"I have been rebuffing these attempts for decades and I am doing it both against pressures from outside and against pressures from within. So, I do not need affirmations, tweets, or lectures from anyone," Mr Netanyahu said.
