The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has made a public appearance in which, for the first time since the start of the war, he has admitted questions. Netanyahu has assured that the war will be “long and difficult” and has insisted that Israeli troops entered Gaza tonight to try to finish off Hamas and free the hostages.

After meeting this Saturday with the families of the 229 hostages held by Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that Israel “it will exhaust all possibilities” to achieve his return.

According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, the release of hostages is the main objective of the war with Hamas. “The key is the level of pressure,” insisted the prime minister, who stressed that “the greater the pressure, the greater the possibilities” of releasing them.

The families of the hostages had made an urgent appeal to meet with Netanyahu and also with the Minister of DefenseYoav Gallant, in the face of growing fears for the safety of his loved ones due to the increase in Israel’s ground operation in Gaza.

For his part, in a message recorded on video and broadcast on the Israel Defense Forces’ X account, the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, stated that “bringing the hostages home is a national effort.” supreme”, and “everything possible” will be done to carry it out successfully.

Likewise, Halevi has acknowledged that the ongoing operation “is going to be complex and it presents risks, because victory has a price.” “To destroy the enemy there is no other solution than to forcefully enter its territory,” he stressed.

This same Saturday, the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has criticized the “unprecedented escalation of bombings” of Israel against the Gaza Strip after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave on Friday.

“I was encouraged by what seemed to be a growing consensus about the need for at least a humanitarian pause in the Middle East. Unfortunately, instead I was surprised by an unprecedented escalation of bombing,” Guterres said in his X account during a visit to Qatar.

The Portuguese has denounced that this expansion of the Israeli campaign against the punished Palestinian enclave “has undermined humanitarian objectives” of the resolution and stressed that “this situation must be reversed”.

“I reiterate my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, along with the unconditional release of the hostages and the delivery of aid at a level that corresponds to the dramatic needs of the people of Gaza, where a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes,” Guterres said.

The UN Secretary General made these statements after Gaza last night recorded the most intense Israeli bombing campaign since the start of the war, which caused the collapse of the communications network and the Israeli Army announced that it has expanded its ground operations in the Gaza Strip and that the war against Hamas has entered “a new phase.”

All this after the UN General Assembly approved on Friday by an overwhelming majority of 120 votes a resolution promoted by Arab countries for an imminent ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave, where more than 7,700 Palestinians have already died as a result of Israeli bombings.

Guterres already stated this Friday that Gaza suffers “an unprecedented avalanche of human suffering” in the face of humanitarian aid that arrives in dribs and drabs and for which “everyone must assume their responsibilities.” “It is the moment of truth. History is judging us all,” he said in a statement read by his spokeswoman.

In total, 7,703 people have died and 18,967 have been injured by the bombings that Israel has carried out in Gaza since last October 7, when in a surprise raid on Israeli soil Hamas will take the lives of 1,400 people. Another 229 were kidnapped and remain in the hands of the Islamist group.