Gadi Eisenkot said during an annual conference in the center of the occupied territories on Wednesday that Netanyahu was to blame “for creating and pushing the concept of ‘total victory’ against [Palestinian resistance movement] Hamas” in the invasion of Rafah, Anadolu reported.

The Israeli premier claims that his onslaught on Rafah aims to dismantle what he calls the “four Hamas brigades” in the city and free Israeli captives held by the Palestinian resistance group.

“Anyone who says that we’ll disband a few battalions in Rafah and then bring back the hostages is sowing a false illusion,” Eisenkot stressed.

The Israeli occupation army expanded its ground offensive in Rafah on Tuesday, with its tanks reaching the center of the city.

Before the launch of the Israeli aggression on Rafah on May 7, the southern city was home to over 1.5 million displaced Palestinians who had been forced to flee their homes across the Gaza Strip due to the regime’s months-long onslaught on the besieged territory.

Israel launched its brutal war on Gaza on October 7 last year after Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups carried out a historic operation against the usurping regime in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

More than 36,170 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority being women and children, and over 81,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nearly eight months into the Israeli genocide, vast swathes of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

SD/PR