The war in Gaza, nearing eight months, may not have an end in sight soon as Israel has warned that the offensive will continue for the rest of at least this year. Around 36,170 Palestinians have been killed across Gaza since the start of the war on October 7, as per Hamas-run health ministry.
"The fighting in Gaza will continue for at least another seven months,” Tzachi Hanegbi, the Prime Minister’s national security adviser, told the country's Kan public radio, as per a BBC report.
The statement comes amid the Sunday Israeli airstrike that killed 45 people, mostly women and children, in Gaza's Rafah city, that drew widepsread global condemnation. The airstrike also came in violation of ruling by the International Court of Justice ordering Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah.
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Hanegbi, considered a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that he was expecting another seven months of conflict "in order to fortify our achievement and what we define as the destruction of the governmental and military capabilities of Hamas and [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad".
The PM's national security adviser also said that Israel's military has taken control of 75 per cent of the buffer zone along the Gaza-Egypt border, as the IDF marched ahead with an assault on the southern city of Rafah. He also added that Israel would soon take full control of the Philadelphi Corridor, a buffer zone, only about 100-meter deep in parts, which runs along the Gaza side of the 13-kilometre border with Egypt, the BBC reported.
"Inside Gaza, the IDF is now in control of 75% of the Philadelphi Corridor and I believe it will be in control of it all with time,” Hanegbi said, adding that the plan was to work with Egypt to “ensure weapon smuggling is prevented”.