JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had offered Arab leaders responsibility for running the Gaza Strip after Israeli forces reoccupied it and toppled Hamas.

"I spoke with many Arab leaders about the possibility of occupying the Gaza Strip, but no one volunteered to run the sector," Netanyahu said in remarks he made Thursday ahead of his departure from Moscow.

Netanyahu has repeatedly praised the growing ties between Israel and a number of Arab countries. "I was hoping to find someone to take responsibility for the sector, but there is none," he said, without naming the leaders he said spoke to them.

Israel is not prepared to take responsibility for the nearly two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, from which the occupation unilaterally withdrew in 2005 under Ariel Sharon, to be subjected to a grueling siege that still exists.

Netanyahu said he was not seeking an unnecessary war (European)

Waving war
Netanyahu waved a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip, stressing that all options were included, including the occupation of Gaza, but said that would be the last option, pointing to the implementation of several operations in the past years, except for the reoccupation of the besieged sector.

The Israeli prime minister, who has been criticized by his opponents for not launching a more ferocious war on Gaza, said he was not waging an unnecessary war, adding instead that strikes were being launched against Palestinian factions in Gaza.

Referring to Hamas, Netanyahu said there could be no political settlement with those seeking to destroy Israel, adding that he did not know whether a long truce could be reached.

As for the Israeli military presence on the Gaza Strip border, Netanyahu said it had forced the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements to keep the demonstrators away from the border fence.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's remarks came about 10 days after an Israeli military escalation followed the fall of a rocket that hit a range of about 120 kilometers on the area of ​​Sharon (northeast of Tel Aviv), injuring seven Israelis.

The head of Hamas's political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Tuesday that the rocket had been launched from the Gaza Strip by a technical error, but also confirmed that it was sending a message.

Egyptian-mediated talks have been underway for days to stabilize the truce between the Palestinian resistance and Israel.