JERUSALEM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized protests Saturday by families of hostages held in Gaza as “useless and contributing to the demands of Hamas.”

Netanyahu said in a news conference that “protests by the families of the hostages do not help but rather increase the demands of Hamas and delay their recovery.”

He noted giving directives within his government to “boost activation of local defense industries to rely more on local arms.”

“Our goal is to eliminate Hamas, as we cannot allow armed forces to remain in Gaza, and the war will not end until the mission is completed,” he said. “There are people among us who doubt our capabilities, but they are a minority.”​​​​​​​

In response to a question about investigations into events of Oct. 7, where the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, launched a surprise attack against Israel, Netanyahu said: “Investigations should be opened after the end of the war, not during its peak.”

And on the International Criminal Court's (ICJ) decision on the war in Gaza, he said, “The court has not made a decision to stop the war and has not forced us to end it.”

Despite a provisional ruling Friday by the ICJ that ordered Tel Aviv to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza, Israel continued its onslaught against the coastal enclave where at least 26,257 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 64,797 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Israeli offensive 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.

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*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala