Netanyahu vows to pursue Hamas 'as long as necessary'
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Tel Aviv: As Israel and Hamas continues to fight, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to pursue the Palestinian militant group for 'as long as necessary' while Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the militant group will not back down.
"Fire will be met with fire," Netanyahu said in a video address late Saturday night.
"This (military) operation will continue as long as it takes until we achieve our goals and bring peace and security to all Israeli citizens," said the PM as quoted by Jerusalem Post.
Meanwhile, the rockets fired by militant Palestinians continued to rain on Israeli cities on Saturday, while warning sirens wailed in the desert city of Beersheba and in border areas near Gaza.
The Israeli Army attacked further targets on Palestinian territory with airstrikes on Saturday, targeting a home in the al-Shati refugee camp, which killed 10 people.
Israel also flattened a high-rise in Gaza City which held offices of major news outlets such as Al-Jazeera and the Associated Press (AP).
In both cases, the Israeli military claimed it was hitting targets affiliated with Hamas.
Al-Jazeera condemned the attack, and claimed it as an attempt to silence the media and identified the airstrike as a crime "perpetrated by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip."
AP CEO Gary Pruitt said he was "shocked and horrified" that the Israeli military destroyed a building with media offices. He said the world would now know less about what is happening in Gaza.
According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, about 145 Palestinians have been killed and 1,100 injured since fighting escalated on Monday.
As per the Magen David Adom rescue service, 10 people were killed and 636 injured in Israel as a result of the rocket fire over the past few days.
More than 2,300 have been fired, according to Israel's Army, although about 20 per cent go down over Gaza without reaching Israeli territory.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least nine people died in clashes in the West Bank and 21 were severely injured in the attacks.