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Israel will continue fighting in Gaza until Hamas is eliminated and “all the other goals of the war are achieved,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting Sunday, as prospects of reaching a peace deal weaken.
“The will of the fallen is our mission. We will stand by it,” Netanyahu added in a social media post, following the Cabinet meeting.
The prime minister said that the goals of the Israeli government include freeing all the remaining hostages held in the Gaza Strip and ensuring the area never constitutes a threat to Israel again.
“To whoever doubts the achieving of these goals, I reiterate: There is no substitute for victory. We will not end the war until we achieve all of these goals,” the prime minister added, according to a Bloomberg report.
The U.S. has been pushing Israel to agree to a three-part cease-fire deal, backed by several countries including France, the U.K., Egypt, Qatar and by the European Commission.
The deal includes several conditions including that Israeli troops pull out of cities in the Gaza Strip, release humanitarian aid and free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Hamas returning some of the hostages and captured Israeli soldiers.
But tense diplomatic talks between the two sides risk derailing, as both Hamas and Israel refuse to agree on how the negotiations over the implementation of the cease-fire should go.
Hamas wants the talks to focus on the prisoner swap, while the Israeli government insists the negotiations should also tackle the de-militarization of the Gaza Strip, according to media reports.
