A child from 'Dar Al Aytam Al Islamiya' (Social Welfare Institutions) carries a placard during a protest in support of the children of Gaza and to demand an end to Israel's operations in Gaza organized by the Lebanese NGO Social Welfare Institutions outside the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA) headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, 11 June 2024. More than 37,000 Palestinians and over 1,400 Israelis have been killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), since Hamas militants launched an attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip on 07 October 2023, and the Israeli operations in Gaza and the West Bank which followed it. EPA-EFE/WAEL HAMZEH Once the intense fighting is over in Gaza, Netanyahu said, it will allow Israel to deploy more forces along the northern border with Lebanon, where fighting has escalated with Iran-backed Hezbollah.
"After the intense phase is finished, we will have the possibility to move part of the forces north. And we will do this. First and foremost for defensive purposes. And secondly, to bring our (evacuated) residents home," Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel's Channel 14.
"If we can we will do this diplomatically. If not, we will do it another way. But we will bring (the residents) home," he said.
Many Israeli towns near the border with Lebanon have been evacuated during the fighting.
Netanyahu also reiterated his rejection to the idea that the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority run Gaza in place of Hamas.
(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Angus MacSwan)