JERUSALEM – Tech tycoon Elon Musk visited the site of a Hamas attack in southern Israel with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and the two discussed artificial intelligence with defense chiefs, officials said.

Musk and Netanyahu conducted a brief interview on the billionaire’s online platform X, formerly Twitter, following their tour of Kfar Aza, one of the kibbutzim – community farms – in southern Israel that was attacked by the Palestinian militant group on October 7 .

“We must demilitarize Gaza after the destruction of Hamas,” Netanyahu said, calling for a campaign to “deradicalize” the Palestinian territory.

“Then we also have to rebuild Gaza, and I hope that our Arab friends will help.”

Netanyahu told Musk he hoped to restart U.S.-brokered normalization talks with Saudi Arabia after the defeat of Hamas and “expand the circle of peace beyond anything imaginable.”

None of the prime minister’s public statements addressed the allegations of rampant anti-Semitism on Musk’s social media.

Earlier in the day, Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said Israel had reached an agreement in principle “with the approval of the Israeli Ministry of Communications” on the deployment of Starlink satellites operated by Musk’s company SpaceX in Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Musk and Netanyahu also “held an in-depth meeting on the security aspects of artificial intelligence,” according to a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office.

“The meeting was attended by senior security officials from the fields of artificial intelligence and cyber.”

The American tycoon was also scheduled to meet with President Isaac Herzog during his visit to Israel.

Herzog will “address the need to take action to combat rising anti-Semitism online,” the office of Israel’s figurehead said on Sunday.

Since taking over the social media site in October 2022, Musk has been under fire for what critics say is increasing hate speech towards X.

The White House also accused him of “despicable promotion” of anti-Semitism after he supported a conspiracy theory that accused Jews of weakening the white majority.

Herzog’s office said the meeting would include “representatives of the families of the hostages held by Hamas, who will speak about the horrors of Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack and the ongoing pain and uncertainty for the prisoners.”

Israel bombed the Gaza Strip for weeks and launched a ground attack in response to the attacks before a four-day ceasefire took effect on November 24.

In September, Netanyahu called on Musk to “stop or curb as best as possible not only anti-Semitism, but also any collective hatred” against X.

Musk, the world’s richest person, said that while his platform cannot stop all hate speech before it is published, he is “generally opposed to attacking any group, no matter who it is.”

X Corp is currently suing the nonprofit Media Matters, saying it drove away advertisers by portraying the site as full of anti-Semitic content.

Musk has also threatened to file a lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group, alleging that problematic and racist speech on the site has surged since his $44 billion acquisition was completed.