Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday said that approximately two-thirds of Hamas’s combat forces in the Gaza Strip have been eliminated.

“There are two stages to the fighting; The first is destroying the Hamas regiments, those are their organized combat frameworks,” Netanyahu said at a press conference in Tel Aviv.

“Up until now, sixteen or seventeen out of twenty-four have been eliminated. After that, there is the [stage] of clearing the territory [of terrorists],” he continued, noting that the initial phase is typically shorter, while the second phase tends to be more protracted.

“Victory will take many more months, but we are determined to achieve it,” he said.

In a separate briefing held yesterday, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “The conflict in Gaza is going to end. It will end.”

When questioned about a timeline, Miller said, “I am not going to make predictions about it. But we do believe that this conflict, as all conflicts do, will end at some point and that there needs to be a political path forward for the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

This week, the IDF killed Bilal Nofal, a Hamas officials who was responsible for investigating those suspected of espionage against the terrorist group. The IDF said that the Shin Bet aided in coordinating Nofal’s elimination, and the operation was conducted using an Air Force aircraft.

“Nofal took part in the development of the organization’s research and learning methods,” the IDF said. “His elimination constitutes an injury to the terrorist organization’s learning and strengthening capabilities.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)