Israel will achieve its goals in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning on Sunday that "international pressure" would not deter Israel from launching an offensive in Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip where thousands of heavily armed Islamist militants remain.

"No international pressure will prevent us from achieving all the objectives of our war against the Hamas Palestinian movement. We will act in Rafah, it will take a few weeks but it will happen," he said at the start of his government's meeting, according to a statement sent by his office.