Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted there will be no ceasefire in the war against Hamas until all hostages are returned.
The deadly Hamas attack on October 7 captured about 240 people and killed at least 1,200 people.
Netanyahu spoke about the war at a news conference in Tel Aviv, saying Israel “will not stop until we complete our mission” and that its only goal is to win.
He said Hamas had “lost control of Gaza” and now had “nowhere to hide.”
Netanyahu said he was still in daily contact with US President Joe Biden and also had the “political and ethical support” of the American government.
Netanyahu spoke about the war at a news conference in Tel Aviv, saying Israel “will not stop until we complete our mission” and that its only goal is victory (file photo).
This image taken on November 11, 2023 from the Israeli side of the Gaza Strip border shows smoke rising over buildings during an Israeli attack on the Palestinian enclave
Many world leaders have come to Israel to show their support, but there are “minorities putting pressure on governments,” he said.
He called on the government “not to give in to this pressure” and said: “Our war is their war.”
“No international pressure, no false accusations… will dissuade us from our cause,” he said.
He rejected calls for a ceasefire, saying: “If you want peace, we have to eliminate Hamas.”
The Israeli leader insisted that Gaza would be demilitarized after the war, now in its sixth week, and Israel would retain security control there.
The position appears to be at odds with post-war scenarios put forward by Israel’s closest ally, the United States, which has said it opposes Israel reoccupying the territory.
Asked what he meant by security control, Netanyahu said Israeli forces must be able to enter the Gaza Strip if necessary to hunt terrorists.
He also said his country was “fully prepared” on its northern front.
Israel has exchanged fire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on its northern border.
Netanyahu said he warned Hezbollah that a war with Israel would be a “fatal mistake” that would “determine the fate of Lebanon.”
Pressure mounted on Israel on Saturday after desperate doctors at Gaza’s largest hospital said the last generator had run out of fuel, leading to the deaths of a premature baby, another child in an incubator and four other patients.
Thousands of war-wounded people, medical personnel and displaced civilians were caught up in the fighting.
In recent days, fighting has intensified near Al-Shifa and other hospitals in northern Gaza and supplies have run out.
People mourn as they collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli raids in Khan Yunis, Gaza, November 11, 2023
The Israeli military has alleged, without providing evidence, that Hamas has set up command posts in and under hospitals, using civilians as human shields.
Al-Shifa medical staff have rejected such claims and accused Israel of harming civilians through indiscriminate attacks.
Al-Shifa Hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said the facility lost power on Saturday.
“Medical equipment stopped.” “Patients, especially in the intensive care unit, started dying,” he said by phone, gunshots and explosions being heard in the background.
He said Israeli troops “shot at anyone outside or inside the hospital” and prevented movement between buildings.
The Israeli military confirmed clashes outside the hospital, but Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari denied that Al-Shifa was under siege.
He said troops would provide assistance Sunday in transporting the babies being treated there, saying “we speak directly and regularly” to hospital staff.
Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli military intelligence chief, told Channel 12 that taking control of the hospitals was crucial because Israel wanted to destroy Hamas, but that doing so would require “a lot of tactical creativity” without patients, other civilians and injuring Israeli hostages.
Six patients died in Al-Shifa after the generator was switched off, including the two children, spokesmen for the Hamas-run health ministry said.
The “unbearably desperate situation” in Al-Shifa must now end, International Committee of the Red Cross Director General Robert Mardini said on social media.
Patients and internally displaced people are pictured at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on November 10, 2023
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said: “Acts of war in health facilities that have run out of electricity, food and water cannot be justified.”
Elsewhere, the Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli tanks were 20 meters (65 feet) from Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa district, causing concern among the 14,000 displaced people seeking refuge there. “caused a state of extreme panic and fear.”
The Israeli military released footage that purportedly showed tanks in the Gaza Strip. Footage showed destroyed buildings, some ablaze, and rubble-filled streets with no one but troops in sight.
A 57-nation gathering of Muslim and Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia called for an end to the war in Gaza and the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid in its communique. They also called on the International Court of Justice, a United Nations body, to open an investigation into the Israeli attacks, saying the war “cannot be described as self-defense and is in no way justifiable.”
Netanyahu said that responsibility for any harm to civilians rests with Hamas and that while Israel has called on civilians to leave the combat areas, “Hamas is doing everything in its power to prevent them from leaving the combat areas.”
A Hamas official denied that its fighters had opened fire on residents trying to leave Gaza City or its hospitals. Speaking by phone, Ghazi Hamad described such claims by Israel as lies and said Hamas had no guards at the hospital gates to prevent people from entering or leaving.
This image taken on November 11, 2023 from the Israeli side of the Gaza Strip border shows smoke rising over buildings during an Israeli attack on the Palestinian enclave
Palestinians arrive in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip after fleeing their homes in Gaza City on November 11, 2023
Palestinians arrive in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 11, 2023
The spokesman for Hamas’s military wing said they would ambush Israeli troops and promised that Israel faces a long battle. The Qassam Brigades spokesman, who calls himself Abu Obaida, acknowledged in an audio recording broadcast on Al Jazeera that the fighting was disproportionate, “but it frightens the strongest force in the region.”
The Israeli military said soldiers encountered hundreds of Hamas fighters during the fighting in underground facilities, schools, mosques and clinics. Israel said a main goal of the war was to destroy Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for 16 years.
After Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on October 7, Israel’s allies have defended the country’s right to self-protection. But now, in the second month of the war, there are growing disagreements over how Israel should fight its battle.
The U.S. is pushing for temporary pauses that would allow for more widespread distribution of urgently needed aid to civilians in the besieged area, where conditions are becoming increasingly dire.
However, Israel has agreed to only short daily periods during which civilians can flee the ground combat zone in northern Gaza and travel south on foot along the territory’s main north-south artery.
Since these evacuation windows were first announced a week ago, more than 150,000 civilians have fled the north, according to UN monitors.
On Saturday, the military announced a new evacuation window and said civilians could use the main road and a coastal road.
A stream of people fled down the main street with children and bags in their arms, many on foot and some on donkey carts.
Palestinian civilians and human rights activists have pushed back against Israel’s portrayal of the southern evacuation zones as “relatively safe.”
They note that Israeli bombings continued across the Gaza Strip, including airstrikes in the south that Israel said targeted Hamas leaders but also killed women and children.
Smoke rises over Gaza as seen from southern Israel, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, November 11, 2023
Smoke rises from the hills of Ramim Ridge in the Upper Galilee after a shootout between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah movement near Moshav Margaliot on Israel’s border with Lebanon on November 11, 2023
“The shelling and explosions never stopped,” said Islam Mattar, one of thousands who sought shelter in Al-Shifa. “The children here are afraid of the constant sound of explosions and the scenes they witness.”
The Ministry of Health told Al Jazeera that there are still 1,500 patients in Al-Shifa, along with 1,500 medical staff and between 15,000 and 20,000 people seeking shelter.
Thousands have fled Al-Shifa and other hospitals under attack, but doctors said it was impossible for everyone to get out.
“We cannot evacuate ourselves and leave these people inside,” Mohammed Obeid, an MSF surgeon in Al-Shifa, was quoted as saying by the organization.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilian and terrorist deaths, more than 11,070 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, two-thirds of them women and minors.
About 2,700 people have been reported missing and are believed to be possibly trapped under the rubble or dead.
Israeli officials said at least 1,200 people were killed in Israel, mostly in Hamas’s first attack.
The military confirmed the deaths of five reserve soldiers on Saturday; 46 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.
In addition, around 250,000 Israelis had to evacuate from communities near Gaza and along the northern border with Lebanon, where there have been repeated firefights between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters.
“Hezbollah is dragging Lebanon into a possible war,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said after meeting soldiers stationed at the border.