Israel-Hamas war: As IDF tanks move towards Gaza, Netanyahu says ‘it will take time’ to defeat Hamas

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in his latest address to the nation said: "We will eliminate Hamas, we will defeat Hamas. It will take time."

"This is just the beginning. Our enemies have only just begun to pay the price but I won't go into detail," said Netanyahu as the war between Hamas and Israel entered the seventh day on Saturday, October 14.

IDF are'fighting like lions': Netanyahu

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Netanyahu described Israel's retaliatory response as 'fight for the homeland', adding that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are"fighting like lions.”

"Much more will be told of the heroism of our people in the dark days of deep pain of that cursed Shabbat — stories that will be etched into Israel’s identity," he said.

"We will never forget the atrocities that our enemies carried out," he says, "and we will never forgive. And we will never let the world, or anyone, forget these atrocities, [of a kind] that were not done to the Jewish people in many decades."

Reflecting on cumulative response of the West tothe ongoing state of war in Israel, Netanyahu said thatIsrael is garnering "immense international support" in its fights against Hamas.

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"We are ensuring the continuation of the war, with more ammunition and weaponry coming to Israel," he said.

"We will destroy Hamas, and we will win. It will take time," Netanyahu says, "but we will end this war stronger than ever."

Wartime fissures emerging in Israel's 'unity government'?

Shortly after Netanyahu's address, Opposition chairman Yair Lapid, who is also the part of Israel's 'unity government', slammed Netanyahu for the purported absence of substance in hisprimetime address.

"It is not unacceptable for the prime minister of Israel to send an entire country into a whirlwind of panic while waiting for his statement on Friday night during a time of emergency and then not say anything new either about the families of the abductees, not about the northern front, not about evacuation," Lapid wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Such statements must not made by a prime minister unless he has new information to bring to his people and the country," he added.

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