Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the nationwide strike is making a ceasefire with Hamas less likely.

Axar.az informs, citing Times of Israel, “Those who today call for ending the war without defeating Hamas are not only hardening Hamas’s position and distancing the release of our hostages, they are also ensuring that the atrocities of October 7 will repeat themselves again and again,” he says at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, “and that our sons and daughters will have to fight again and again in an endless war.”

“To make progress on the release of our hostages and to ensure that Gaza will no longer be a threat to Israel, we must complete the mission and defeat Hamas,” he continues, in statements released by the Prime Minister’s Office.