Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that there will be no ceasefire in the war against Hamas until all of the hostages are returned.
Discussing the war at a news conference from Tel Aviv on Saturday, Netanyahu said Israel ‘will not stop until we complete our mission’ and that its only goal is to win.
He said Hamas has ‘lost its grip’ on Gaza and there is now ‘no place to hide’.
Netanyahu said he still has daily contact with US President Joe Biden, and also has the ‘political and ethical support’ of the American administration.
Several world leaders have come to visit Israel to show support but there are ‘minorities that pressure the governments’, he said.
He urged the government to ‘not succumb to this pressure’ and said ‘our war is their war’.
‘No international pressure, no false accusations… will deviate us from our cause,’ he said.
Rejecting calls for a ceasefire, he said: ‘If you want peace, we have to eliminate Hamas.’
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The Israeli leader insisted that after the war, now entering its sixth week, Gaza would be demilitarised and Israel would retain security control there.
The position appears to run counter to post-war scenarios floated by Israel’s closest ally, the United States, which has said it opposes an Israeli reoccupation of the territory.
Asked what he meant by security control, Netanyahu said Israeli forces must be able to enter Gaza when necessary to hunt down terrorists.
He also said his country is ‘fully prepared’ on its northern front.
Israel has been exchanging fire with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on the northern border.
Netanyahu said he had warned Hezbollah that entering war with Israel would be a ‘fatal mistake’ that would ‘determine the fate of Lebanon’.
Hamas’s deadly assault on October 7 saw around 240 taken captive and at least 1,200 Israelis were killed.
