Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Jerusalem: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel struck a defiant tone in marking 100 days of war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, vowing to keep fighting despite growing uncertainty over the outcome, international alarm over the mounting loss of life in the enclave and fears of a broader regional conflagration.
His pledge to continue until “total victory” came even as Israel awaited a decision from the world’s top court on a possible injunction against its military’s devastating offensive in Gaza. Launched in retaliation for the deadly Hamas-led Oct. 7 assault, the Israeli military’s war against Hamas has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, a majority of them women and children, according to Gaza health officials.
“We are continuing the war until the end — until total victory, until we achieve all of our goals,” Netanyahu declared in a televised news conference Saturday night, saying that “eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel” were the goals.
Netanyahu in the same breath invoked Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, whose military actions in solidarity, they say, with Palestinians in Gaza have raised the specter of a wider conflict.
The United States led airstrikes Thursday and Friday against sites in Yemen controlled by the Houthi militia, in response to more than two dozen Houthi attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea since November. However, the Houthis retained much of their ability to fire missiles and drones, according to US officials.
At the same time, clashes across the Israel-Lebanon border continued over the weekend.
An antitank missile launched from Lebanon on Sunday hit a house in northern Israel, killing a farmer and his mother, according to initial reports. Israel’s military said that its fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and that its forces had engaged in a firefight overnight with assailants who crossed into Israeli-controlled territory from Lebanon.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have been evacuated from the country’s northern border areas, and Israel has warned that it will resort to military action if diplomatic efforts to allow their safe return home do not bear fruit. Thousands of Lebanese civilians have also fled the border area.
On Sunday, Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, struck a tone of defiance. “After 99 days,” he said, “we are ready for war. We are not afraid of it.”