The border zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt ought to be beneath Israel’s management, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Saturday as he predicted the battle within the Palestinian enclave and on different regional fronts would final many extra months.

Netanyahu held a information convention as Israel entered the thirteenth week of its battle towards Gaza’s ruling Hamas Islamists, which has stoked violence within the occupied West Bank and touched off assaults by Iran-backed teams in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

“The Philadelphi Corridor – or to put it more correctly, the southern stoppage point (of Gaza) – must be in our hands. It must be shut. It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarisation that we seek,” he stated.

Israel has stated it intends to destroy Hamas in Gaza and demilitarise and deradicalise the territory with the intention to forestall any repeat of the Oct. 7 cross-border killing and kidnapping spree by the Palestinians militant group that sparked the battle.

“The war is at its height. We are fighting on all of the fronts. Achieving victory will require time. As the (IDF) chief of staff has said, the war will continue for many more months,” Netanyahu stated.

He added a uncommon menace to assault Iran straight over the near-daily exchanges of fireplace throughout the Israel-Lebanon border. “If Hezbollah expands the warfare, it will suffer blows that it has not dreamed of – and so too Iran,” Netanyahu stated with out elaborating.