Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will take full control of the Gaza Strip: "It will take time, but we will deliver."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the Israeli army will take control of "all areas of the Gaza Strip" and that his government will allow a "minimal" entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave to continue the offensive.

"We have intense, massive fighting, and there is progress. We are going to take control of all areas of the Strip, that's what we are going to do," Netanyahu said in a video shared on social media by Army Radio.

The president also stated that he has decided to allow a "minimal" flow of aid to Gaza for fear that famine in the enclave would cause Israel's allies to withdraw their military and diplomatic support for the country.

"Our best friends in the world, senators who passionately support Israel (...) tell me this: 'We are giving you all the necessary aid for victory, weapons, support, protection in the Security Council. But there is one thing we cannot tolerate, we cannot accept images of famine, mass famine,'" Netanyahu explained, apparently referring to the US.

For this reason, the prime minister said he had made the "difficult" decision to allow a minimal entry of supplies until the country could implement its plan to restrict the distribution of humanitarian aid to a number of points in the south of the enclave secured by the military.

"It will take time. We will establish the first points in a few days and then add more," the president said of the plan, which was supported by the United States but flatly rejected by the UN, which has so far been in charge of distributing aid in Gaza.

" Two million people are starving " in Gaza, World Health Organization (WHO) director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Monday, despite "tons of food blocked at the border, just minutes away," he criticized.

Netanyahu made it clear that this decision will allow Israel to achieve "total victory" in Gaza and fulfill its primary objective: the complete destruction of Hamas, which rules the enclave.

"It will take time, but we will eventually achieve it," he assured.

The decision to resume aid flows to Gaza, which has been completely blocked by Israel for more than two months, was announced last night by Netanyahu after the Israeli army launched the new phase of its offensive against Gaza.

Rescuers in the Palestinian territory reported Monday that Israeli airstrikes have killed 22 people in different parts of the territory in recent hours.

The Islamist movement is negotiating indirectly with Israel to reach a ceasefire, in talks taking place in Qatar, one of the mediating countries along with Egypt and the United States.

But negotiations have so far been fruitless. Only a one-week truce was reached at the end of 2023, followed by a two-month truce at the beginning of this year, which was broken when Israel resumed its offensive in March.

* With information from Efe and AFP.