ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed today to follow through on his pledge to attack Rafah, the southern Gaza city where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge from Israel’s military campaign.

Mr Netanyahu said Israel would enter Rafah to destroy Hamas forces there “with or without a deal” emerging from internationally mediated talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in the seven-month-long conflict.

The deal is meant to free the remaining hostages taken during the Hamas assault on October 7, when about 1,200 people were killed.

Since then, Israel’s retaliation has killed at least 34,454 Palestinians in Gaza.

“The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate Hamas’s battalions there — with a deal or without a deal — to achieve total victory,” Mr Netanyahu said at a meeting with families of the hostages, according to a statement from his office.

The Israeli prime minister is under pressure from a number of directions at home.

His far-right coalition partners, who keep him in office, insist on an offensive in Rafah, which they claim is the last major Hamas stronghold.

But Mr Netanyahu has been jolted by large demonstrations across Israel demanding his resignation and imprisonment for negligence on October 7, as well as for the outstanding charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust against him, all of which he denies.

Hopes have risen in recent days that the two sides could move towards a deal that would avert an Israeli incursion into Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are sheltering.

The international community, including Israel’s top ally the United States, have raised an alarm over the fate of civilians in Rafah if Israel invades.

Meanwhile, representatives of the rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah have made “encouraging progress” in recent talks in Beijing on promoting reconciliation, China’s Foreign Ministry said today.

Spokesman Lin Jian said representatives of the two groups had been invited by China and “recently came to Beijing to have an in-depth and candid dialogue on promoting Palestinian reconciliation.”

He said they “had discussions on many specific issues and made encouraging progress.

“The sides agreed to continue this dialogue process so as to achieve Palestinian solidarity and unity at an early date.”

Mr Lin added that both sides had “reached an agreement on ideas for future dialogue.”