FLASH
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The mounting international pressure has not deterred Benjamin Netanyahu from backtracking on his plans to launch an offensive in the southern city of Rafah.
Asked where the hundreds of thousands of civilians should be evacuated to, the Israeli prime minister suggested they could be moved north of the city to areas "already cleared" by the IDF.
Pushed by the number of Palestinians killed by the IDF, which the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says is more than 28,000, Netanyahu says roughly one civilian has been killed for every "terrorist victim."
"We have killed and wounded over 20,000 Hamas terrorists, out of them about 12,000 fighters, and we are doing everything we can to minimize civilian casualties," the Israeli prime minister said.
He added that he did not know what Joe Biden meant when the US president said that the military operation in Gaza was "over the top".
Netanyahu said victory was "imminent", defining it as the elimination of the organized fighting forces of Hamas.
He was also asked whether he prioritized rescuing the 132 hostages remaining in Gaza or military victory, which he said were not mutually exclusive goals.
"I'm not sure anyone can put themselves in the position of the families, but neither can the families put themselves in the position of the decision-makers. Those are two separate things. Enough hostages remained alive "to warrant the kind of effort that we're doing. we do," Netanyahu said.
Any future peace deal involving a Palestinian state is "remote", he said, and Israel must retain "overriding security control" of Gaza.
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