The future of the Gaza Strip is more uncertain after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted that the Palestinian Authority in its present state should not control the coastal area.

Israel has sworn to wipe out Palestinian group Hamas, which rules Gaza, after its surprise October 7 attack across the border, and has started a full-scale invasion of the land.

But it has not clarified who should govern the land after the war is over, only saying that Israel would keep overall security.

Washington has said Israel must not occupy the land after the war, with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken saying last week that the Gaza administration had to be joined with the nearby West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority (PA) runs some parts.

On Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the PA might have a future role in running the Gaza Strip, but Netanyahu suggested late yesterday he did not want the current PA leaders to have full control in Gaza.

Netanyahu expressed his long-held complaints about the PA’s school curriculum, which he claims incites hatred of Israel, and its practice of paying salaries to families of Palestinians jailed in Israel.

He said: “There will not be a civilian authority that teaches its children to … destroy the state of Israel, there can’t be an authority that rewards the families of killers.” He also said: “There can’t be an authority led by someone who, more than a month after the (Oct. 7) slaughter, has still not denounced (it).”

Abbas has condemned violence against civilians “on both sides” but has not clearly denounced the Oct. 7 attack, where Israeli figures say 1,200 people died and around 240 were abducted, mostly civilians.

Palestinian officials claim that Israeli attacks have killed more than 11,078 Gazans in the last five weeks, about 40% of them children.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Abbas, told Reuters that the Israelis wanted to maintain divisions between the two Palestinian lands—the West Bank under Israeli occupation and Gaza.

He said: “Israel’s efforts to split Gaza from the West Bank will not succeed, and it will not be tolerated, no matter the pressures.”

The PA once governed both the West Bank and Gaza, but lost control of the latter in 2007 after a short civil war with Hamas.

Diplomats say that Western governments hope to include the PA in the future of Gaza, but they are also worried that Abbas, who is 87 years old, does not have enough power or the backing of his people to take charge.