Netanyahu visits Gaza, vows no end to fighting

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited his country’s forces in Gaza on Monday as he insisted Israel would go full force with its attack amid international pressure for an end to the fighting.

“With our heroic fighters in Gaza – fighting until victory!” Netanyahu’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter, stated Monday. The words accompanied a video that showed Netanyahu walking from a helicopter and then being escorted through scenes of bombed-out buildings with Israeli soldiers flanking him on both sides.

Netanyahu in an address to his political party previously vowed the war would not stop.

“We are expanding the fight in the coming days, and this will be a long battle and it isn’t close to finished,” he said in the address, according to the Associated Press.

He delivered a similar message in a speech in Israel’s parliament, where families of the more than 100 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza held signs calling for Israel to reach a deal to bring them home immediately. “Now! Now!,” they chanted from the gallery, the AP reported.

The United Nations Security Council last week approved a measure meant to step up humanitarian aid to Gaza, where thousands of people have been killed by Israel’s bombardment of the country. Israel’s war is itself a response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 people and left hundreds more hostages in Gaza.

The text called for the release of hostages, and for “urgent steps” to allow humanitarian access, and adds urgency to “create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.”

The U.S. abstained from the final vote but did not block the resolution, a sign of how it has been trying to step up pressure on Israel over its handling of the war. The Biden administration’s support for the war has led to divides in the Democratic Party and criticism internationally. 

Netanyahu’s trip to Gaza was his second since the war began, according to The New York Times.

The Associated Press contributed.