Netanyahu says war against Hamas in Gaza will continue for months, warns Hezbollah and Iran

Kicking off a press conference amid the war against Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is “fighting on all fronts.”

Netanyahu says more time is needed to win and says the campaign will last many more months. He vows the the fighting will continue until all of the goals of the offensive are achieved, chiefly destroying Hamas and bringing the hostages home.

Gaza “will not be a threat to Israel,” he vows, and ultimately there will be no terrorist elements there.

He refers to international pressure to end the war before the goals are achieved, and expressed appreciation for US support in that context, including at the UN Security Council last week and through ongoing weapons supplies.

He says the IDF is operating to ensure “maximal protection” for its soldiers.

“Over 8,000 terrorists have been killed,” and Hamas’s military capabilities are being destroyed “step by step.”

The premier stresses he is also committed to restoring security along the northern border amid repeated Hezbollah attacks, so the residents who were evacuated from there can return home.

He also declares, “If Hezbollah widens the fighting, it will absorb strikes it never dreamed of. And so, too, Iran,” he says.

“We will fight by all means until we have restored security for the residents of the north.”

Iran leads the “axis of evil” and the aggression against Israel “on the various fronts,” he says, and threatens the entire free world.

In that context, he vows to “do everything, but everything, to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons.”