Jerusalem, May 12 : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday night that Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip will “continue as long as necessary”, amid the worst spate of violence between Israel and the Palestinians in months.

Netanyahu made the remarks after a security assessment in the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv with Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Shin Bet intelligence agency’s director Ronen Bar, army chief Herzi Halevi and other top security officials, Xinhua news agency reported.  Netanyahu and Gallant instructed the army and Shin Bet “to continue to exact a heavy price” from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to a statement issued on their behalf. “The campaign will continue as long as necessary,” it added. 

The efforts to negotiate a truce by Egypt, a frequent mediator between the Palestinians and Israel, have not yet yielded results.  Israel’s state-owned Kan TV news reported that an Egyptian team was traveling to Israel for talks but an Israeli official said in a statement on Thursday night that a truce “is no longer on the agenda at the moment.” 

The intense fighting began after Israel killed three senior Islamic Jihad commanders in airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since Tuesday.  According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, 29 Palestinian have been killed since the beginning of the fighting, including six children and three women, and another 93 have been injured, including 32 children and 17 women.  In Israel, a man was killed after a rocket hit a residential building in Rehovot, a city 25 km south of Tel Aviv, while 11 others were injured, according to official Israeli figures.