GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — During a meeting in Sydney with the Australian foreign minister Feb. 25, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provoked much anger among Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip with his alleged statements on the Australian proposal to deploy international forces in the Palestinian territories to confront what Netanyahu called “terrorism.”
An anonymous source close to Netanyahu denied that the prime minister made such statements in a Feb. 26 interview with Israeli radio station Reshet Bet. The source said that the proposal to deploy international troops was made by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, and that Netanyahu rejected such a proposal, especially with regard to the deployment of international forces in the West Bank.