Israel’s defense minister predicts drawn-out war

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israel’s defense minister said Thursday it will take “more than several months” to destroy Hamas, predicting a drawn-out war.

Yoav Gallant’s comments came as U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Israeli leaders to discuss a timetable for winding down major combat in Gaza. Israeli leaders repeated their determination to pursue the military assault until they crush the terrorist group for its Oct. 7 attack.

The Biden administration has shown unease over civilian casualties and Israel’s plans for the future of Gaza, but it continues to offer wholehearted support for Israel’s campaign with weapons and diplomatic backing.

The prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Shtayyeh, said it’s time for the United States to deal more firmly with Israel, particularly on Washington’s calls for postwar negotiations for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Now that the United States has talked the talk, we want Washington to walk the walk,” Shtayyeh said in an interview with The Associated Press a day before he and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are to meet Sullivan.

A deadly Hamas ambush on Israeli troops in Gaza City this week showed the group’s resilience.

Gallant said Hamas has been building military infrastructure in Gaza for more than a decade, “and it is not easy to destroy them. It will require a period of time.”

“It will last more than several months, but we will win, and we will destroy them,” he said.

Sullivan’s visit comes days after President Joe Biden said Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing.” On Wednesday evening, Sullivan met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the other two members of Israel’s War Cabinet in Tel Aviv.

Afterward, Netanyahu said he had “told our American friends … we are more determined than ever to continue fighting until Hamas is eliminated — until complete victory.”

Israelis remain strongly supportive of the war and see it as necessary to prevent a repeat of Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists attacked communities across southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking some 240 hostage. A total of 116 soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive, which began Oct. 27.

Around half the hostages, mostly women and children, were released last month during a weeklong cease-fire in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has surpassed 18,700, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

The Palestinian telecommunications provider Paltel said Thursday that all communication services across Gaza were cut off due to ongoing fighting.

Heavy fighting has raged for days in areas around eastern Gaza City that were encircled earlier in the war. Tens of thousands of people remain in the north.

The military released footage Thursday showing Israeli troops leading a line of dozens of men with their hands above their heads out of a damaged building it said was the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north Gaza town of Beit Lahia. Men brought out four assault rifles and set them on the street along with several ammunition magazines.

In the video, a commander said terrorists had fired on troops from the hospital and that troops were evacuating those inside while detaining suspected terrorists. Earlier in the week, a Gaza Health Ministry official said the weapons inside belong to the hospital’s guards.

Israeli troops have held the hospital since Tuesday, according to the Health Ministry and U.N. Israel says it is rounding up men in northern Gaza as it searches for Hamas fighters.

Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed.