Netanyahu eyes control of Gaza security

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday that Israel will take control of "overall security" of besieged Gaza after the war.

"Israel will, for an indefinite period, will have the overall security responsibility," he told ABC News.

"When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn't imagine."

The prime minister also reiterated that "There will be no ceasefire — general ceasefire — in Gaza, without the release of our hostages."

Palestinian terrorists took more than 240 people hostage, including children and elderly people, in their 7 October attack of Israel that prompted the latter's military to massively bombard Gaza and deploy ground troops.

The Israeli army said it had pounded Gaza with "significant" strikes on 450 targets over 24 hours since Sunday morning, and that troops were targeting Hamas commanders in underground tunnels.

Israeli infantry and tanks have flooded the northern half of the Gaza Strip and tightened an encirclement of Gaza City, effectively splitting the territory in two.