Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again rejected calls for an end to the Gaza War for as long as Israel's objectives remain unmet.
"If we end the war now, before our goals have been achieved, this will mean that Israel has lost the war," Netanyahu said in Jerusalem at the start of the regular Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday. He added that he would not permit this.
Israel would not submit to international pressure on the issue, Netanyahu said, making clear that he was sticking to plans for the Israeli military to enter Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip to eliminate Hamas units sheltering there.
"To our friends in the international community, I say: Is your memory so short? Have you forgotten October 7 so quickly, the worst massacre of Jews since the Shoah (Holocaust)?"
Netanyahu called on the international community rather to exert pressure on Hamas and its backer, Iran. "They are the ones that pose a threat to the region and the entire world," he said.
The Israeli prime minister was to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz later in the day. Speaking after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah, Scholz called for an urgent ceasefire and warned against an Israeli assault on Rafah.
