TEL AVIV, April 30. /TASS/. Israeli forces will conduct an operation in the city of Rafah on Gaza’s border with Egypt in any event, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

"The idea that we will stop the war before attaining all of its goals is not even looked at. We will enter Rafah and exterminate Hamas battalions staying there," he said at a meeting with the families of Israeli hostages held in the Palestinian enclave.

He stressed that this will be done regardless of the potential agreement with the Palestinian radicals on the release of hostages. According to Netanyahu, Israel need the operation in Rafah to defeat Hamas.

According to the Israeli prime minister’s office, the relatives of the hostages called for continuing the war on Hamas and "resisting international pressure" on Israel over the situation in Gaza.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.

In late November 2023, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which took effect on November 24. The sides extended the ceasefire several times but on the morning of December 1 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire on Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip. According to Israel, as many as 110 hostages were released during the ceasefire period and 133 are still held in Gaza.