TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rebuffed international pressure, vowing that Israel would push ahead with an attack on Hamas militants in Rafah near the Gaza-Egyptian border, even as cease-fire talks were set to resume in Qatar in the coming days.

“No amount of international pressure will stop us from realizing all the goals of the war,” to erase any Hamas control in Gaza, Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting in a video released by his office.

“To do this, we will also operate in Rafah,” although he gave no indication of an imminent attack.

He later told CNN’s “State of the Union” show that Israel would “keep on trying” to agree on a six-week cease-fire in the war with Hamas, now in its sixth month.

But to achieve that, he said, “We’re going to maintain military pressure.”

Netanyahu said it was “totally inappropriate” for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish-American official, to call last week for new Israel elections as he contended that Netanyahu has “lost his way” in the country’s bombardment of Gaza.

“I think the only government that we should be working on to bring down now is the terrorist tyranny in Gaza, the Hamas tyranny that murdered over a thousand Israelis,” Netanyahu said.

(VOA)