JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet ministers that what he called the third phase of the Gaza war will take six months, local media reported on Tuesday.

“Netanyahu said that it will take six months for the army to finish the third phase of the war, which has already begun in the northern Gaza Strip,” said Israeli public broadcaster KAN.

The Israeli premier said that the first phase of aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip took three weeks.

“And as we said that the second part of the massive maneuver would last three months, and so it was, this is how we say that the third part of establishing control will last six months,” he was quoted as saying by KAN.

Israel has mounted a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which Tel Aviv says killed 1,200 people.

At least 25,490 Palestinians have since been killed by the Israeli attacks, mostly women and children, and 63,354 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.