In clear signs of Israeli control over parts of Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with his senior colleagues, entered the Hamas-ruled coastal Strip on Sunday to meet Israeli soldiers to boost their morale and vowed to carry on the fight “until the end”.

Netanyahu received security briefings from commanders and soldiers and visited one of the tunnels that has been revealed, an official press statement said.

“We are here in the Gaza Strip with our heroic soldiers. We are making every effort to return our hostages, and in the end we will return them all. We have three goals in this war: Eliminate Hamas, return all of our hostages and ensure that Gaza will not go back to being a threat to the State of Israel,” Netanyahu told the soldiers on the ground.

“I am here to tell the soldiers, who all tell me the same thing, and I repeat it to you, citizens of Israel: We are continuing until the end – until victory. Nothing will stop us, and we are convinced that we have the force, the strength, the will and the determination to achieve all of our goals for the war, and this is what we will do,” he asserted.

The Israeli prime minister was accompanied by his Chief of Staff, Tzachi Braverman, National Security Council Director Tzachi Hanegbi, his Military Secretary Maj-Gen Avi Gil, and Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Deputy Chief-of-Staff Maj-Gen Amir Baram.