Tel Aviv, 29 November 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Israeli will continue its military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas once a current truce agreement runs out, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told German broadcaster Welt TV in an interview published on Tuesday.

The premier did not comment on for how long the current truce, now in its fifth day, could be extended.

"We agreed that women and children as well as the foreign hostages would be released first," Netanyahu said in the interview, which was conducted in English and later translated by Welt TV into German.

"After that has happened, we will continue the fighting," he added.

Hamas, the Palestinian extremist organization that took power in Gaza by force in 2007, had committed the worst murders, Netanyahu said, referring to the brutal October 7 attacks committed by Hamas fighters and other groups from Gaza on Israeli border communities in which some 1,200 people were killed.

"We have absolutely no choice but to destroy Hamas," Netanyahu said in view of the massacre.

Israel would continue to do everything in its power to spare civilians in the Gaza Strip as much as possible, he said. However, according to Hamas, almost 15,000 people have already been killed and around 36,000 injured amid heavy Israeli bombardment. A further 7,000 inhabitants of the densely populated coastal area are considered missing.

Photo: MIA archive