Israel's Netanyahu vows no let-up in war against Hamas as Gaza deaths mount

Tel Aviv [Israel], December 26: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to keep up the fight against Hamas militants while Palestinians mourned more than 100 people who Gaza health officials said were killed overnight in Israeli airstrikes.
Netanyahu visited Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip just hours after one of the besieged enclave's deadliest nights in the 11-week-old battle between Israel and Hamas.
Retaliating against Hamas for its deadly Oct. 7 cross-border rampage, 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.
But Netanyahu 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 without applying military pressure.
"We are not stopping. The war will continue until the end, until we finish it, no less," Netanyahu, who has defied international calls for a ceasefire, said during the Gaza visit.
At a funeral in Gaza, a line of Palestinian mourners touched the white shrouds wrapped around the bodies of at least 70 people who Palestinian health officials said were killed by an airstrike that hit Maghazi in the centre of the strip.
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Cooperation