Europe News Desk!!! Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday night that Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip would continue as long as necessary. Netanyahu made the remarks after a security assessment at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv with Defense Minister Yoav Galant, Shin Bet intelligence agency director Ronen Bar, army chief Hargi Halevi and other top security officials, Xinhua news agency reported. According to a statement released on their behalf, Netanyahu and Gallant instructed the military and Shin Bet to continue to exact a heavy price from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The campaign will continue as long as it is necessary, he said. Attempts to negotiate a ceasefire by Egypt, which has been a mediator between the Palestinians and Israel, have so far yielded no results.
Israeli state-owned Kan TV news reported that an Egyptian team is traveling to Israel for talks, but an Israeli official said in a statement on Thursday night that a ceasefire was not currently on the agenda. The fighting intensified after Israel killed three senior Islamic Jihad commanders in airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since Tuesday. According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 29 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the fighting, including six children and three women, and 93 wounded, including 32 children and 17 women. Elsewhere, in Israel, one person was killed and 11 others were injured when a rocket hit a residential building in Rehovot, a city 25 km south of Tel Aviv.
–IANS
World News Desk!!!
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