Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected US calls for the development of a Palestinian state, as he vowed the offensive in Gaza would press ahead for many months.
In a nationally televised news conference on Thursday, Mr Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, repeatedly saying that Israel would not halt its offensive until it achieves its goals of destroying the Hamas militant group and bringing home all remaining hostages in Gaza.
“We will not settle for anything short of an absolute victory,” Mr Netanyahu said.
It comes as Israel’s closest ally, the US, has urged the country to scale back the intensity of its devastating military offensive that has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The US has said the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority, which governs certain zones in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, should be “revitalised” and returned to Gaza, having been ousted from the territory in 2007.
The US has also called for steps towards the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Speaking on Wednesday, Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said the two-state solution was the best way to protect Israel, unify moderate Arab countries and isolate Israel’s arch-enemy, Iran.
Without a “pathway to a Palestinian state” Israel would not “get genuine security”, he said at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
At the same conference, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan al Saud, said his country was ready to establish full relations with Israel as part of a political agreement, but this could only happen “through peace for the Palestinians, through a Palestinian state”.
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