Netanyahu visits Israeli troops in northern Gaza
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep fighting in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed, defying global calls for a ceasefire amid concerns the conflict could spread with US and Iran-aligned forces again attacking each other.
Netanyahu, who visited Israeli troops in northern Gaza on Monday, told lawmakers from his Likud Party that the war was far from over and dismissed what he cast as media speculation his government might call a halt to the fighting.
He said Israel would not succeed in freeing its remaining hostages held by Hamas without applying military pressure. “We are not stopping. The war will continue until the end, until we finish it, no less,” Netanyahu.
In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Netanyahu reiterated three prerequisites for peace: Hamas must be destroyed, Gaza must be demilitarised, and Palestinian society must be deradicalised. Israel has been under pressure from its closest ally the United States to shift operations in Gaza to a lower-intensity phase and reduce civilian deaths.
US forces have come under attack by Iran-backed militants in Iraq and Syria over Washington’s backing of Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In the latest tit-for-tat clash, the US military carried out retaliatory air strikes on Monday in Iraq after a drone attack by Iran-aligned militants on a US base in Erbil left one US service member in critical condition and wounded two other US personnel, officials said.
The air strikes killed “a number of Kataib Hezbollah militants” and destroyed multiple facilities used by the group, the US military said.mHezbollah has deep ties to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian faction backed by Iran.
“These strikes are intended to hold accountable those elements directly responsible for attacks on coalition forces in Iraq and Syria and degrade their ability to continue attacks. We will always protect our forces,” said General Michael Erik Kurilla, head of US Central Command, in a statement.
The US military has come under attack at least 100 times in Iraq and Syria since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, usually with a mix of rockets and one-way attack drones.
Hamas and smaller militant ally Islamic Jihad, both sworn to Israel’s destruction, are believed to be holding more than 100 hostages from among 240 they captured during their October 7 rampage through Israeli towns, when they killed 1,200 people.
Since then, Israel has laid much of the narrow strip to waste. The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have been driven from their homes, and the United Nations says humanitarian conditions are catastrophic.