Netanyahu says Gaza war exacting 'heavy price' as soldiers' deaths mount

TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the war in Gaza was exacting a “very heavy price” as the toll of Israeli soldiers killed in fighting with Hamas mounted.

“This is a difficult morning, after a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza… The war is exacting a very heavy price… but we have no choice but to keep fighting,” he said in a statement, after the army announced that 14 soldiers had been killed in the Palestinian territory since Friday.

The Israeli army has indicated its forces were close to having operational control in north Gaza, after weeks of intense fighting.

Now, “we focus our efforts against Hamas in southern Gaza,” military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said.

Troops were notably looking to Khan Yunis — the birthplace and powerbase of Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in Gaza and the man Israel holds most responsible for the attack that sparked the war.

Hamas said new strikes had hit Jabalia and Khan Yunis.

Israeli army said it had attacked about 200 targets in Gaza over the past day and nine more soldiers were killed.

US President Joe Biden had a “long talk” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he emphasised “the critical need” to protect civilians.

Biden said he did not ask for a ceasefire.

Israeli officials said Netanyahu “made it clear that Israel would continue the war until all of its goals have been achieved”.

The occupation army claimed it had located “a Hamas weapons compound inside a civilian structure” in north Gaza, adding troops found “explosive belts adapted for children” at the site.

Hamas blasted the statement, calling it “a continuation of the lying and misleading approach practised by the Zionist enemy to justify their massacring of innocent civilians”.

Israelis, including friends and relatives of the 129 captives still believed held in Gaza, demonstrated again in Tel Aviv.

Hamas’s armed wing said it had “lost contact” with militants tasked with guarding five of the hostages, including three elderly men who appeared in a hostage video the group released this week.

“We believe that those hostages have been killed” in Israeli strikes, said spokesman Abu Obeida without providing evidence.