WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he wanted peace with Palestinians but described any future independent state as a platform to destroy Israel and for that reason sovereign power of security must remain with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently told President Donald Trump that Palestinians have “a free choice” of relocating to other countries.

The United States has sanctioned an independent investigator of human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, in latest move by the Trump administration targeting critics of Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu answered a question Monday night at the White House on a previously floated idea to "relocate" Palestinians out of Gaza. REPORTER: Is your Palestinian relocation plan still on the table?

Israeli leaders are denying claims that soldiers were ordered to shoot at Palestinians approaching aid sites in Gaza.

The war started after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage. Most of the hostages have been released in earlier ceasefires. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.