TEL AVIV, November 5. /TASS/. Israel will not agree to declare a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip without the release of all hostages held there, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

At a meeting with Israeli military pilots, Netanyahu said that Israel’s opponents were wrong when they though that the Israeli would not be able to consolidate. "We responded together and are now fighting shoulder to shoulder," he said.

He stressed that there will be no ceasefire without the release of hostages. He said that such a word should be crossed out of the vocabulary. Israel, in his words, has no other option than to continue until Hamas is defeated.

Following various calls, including from the US, for "humanitarian pauses" to deliver aid to the Gaza population, the Israeli prime minister has already pledged that Israel would not agree to declare a ceasefire unless the hostages held in the Gaza strip are released.

Tensions flared up in the Middle East after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip attacked Israeli territory, killing many Israelis living in the settlements near the border and abducting more than 200 people, including children, women and the elderly. Hamas views its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ steps against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.