Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated that Israel “can’t leave a gap in Gaza” and will need to maintain a strong presence there for the foreseeable future to prevent the re-emergence of Hamas in the Palestinian enclave, the Financial Times reports today.

“If we withdraw, then who will take over? We cannot leave a gap. We have to think about what the mechanism will be; there are a lot of ideas being put forward,” Herzog said in an interview with the British newspaper.

“But nobody wants this place, Gaza, to turn into a terrorist base again,” he added.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that Israel will have “for an indefinite period” after the war the responsibility for the security of the enclave, but the United States responded by saying that the Palestinians should rule Gaza once Israel ends its war against Hamas.

Herzog told the Financial Times that Israel’s government is discussing many ideas for how to govern Gaza once the war between Israel and Hamas ends, and added that he assumed the United States and “our neighbors in the region” they will have some mixing in the formation of the post-war order.

US President Joe Biden said yesterday, Wednesday, that he made it clear to the Israeli Prime Minister how a two-state solution is the only answer to the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that the occupation of Gaza would be “a big mistake”.