Netanyahu vows 'no one will stop us' from destroying Hamas as war enters 100th day

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "no one will stop us" from destroying Hamas as the war entered its 100th day.

The conflict has triggered a humanitarian crisis, with more than 23,000 people reported killed in Gaza and much of the besieged Palestinian territory reduced to rubble.

The war was triggered on October 7 when Hamas militants launched an unprecedented attack from the Gaza Strip that resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, based on Israel figures. Hamas, considered a "terrorist" group by the U.S. and the EU, also seized about 250 hostages, 132 of whom Israel says remain in Gaza, including at least 25 believed to have been killed.

Tensions in the Middle East region have been bubbling since that attack with fears that the conflict could escalate and bring other countries into the war.

This has intensified by the airstrikes from the U.S. and the British over two nights on Houthi targets in Yemen, as Washington vowed to protect shipping from attacks by the Iran-aligned movement.

President Joe Biden said the U.S. had sent a private message to Iran about the Houthi attacks. He did not elaborate, telling reporters, "We delivered it privately and we're confident we're well-prepared."

The latest strike on Saturday morning, which the U.S. said hit a radar site, came a day after dozens of American and British strikes on Houthi facilities in Yemen. "This new strike will have a firm, strong and effective response," Houthi spokesperson Nasruldeen Amer told Al Jazeera, adding there had been no injuries nor "material damages."

Israel vowed to destroy Hamas after the October 7 attacks and launched a relentless bombardment that has killed at least 23,843 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest toll from the territory's health ministry.

After the Hague-based International Court of Justice heard arguments this week that accused Israel of breaching the UN Genocide Convention, Netanyahu insisted no court or military foe could stop Israel from achieving its aim of destroying Hamas.

"No one will stop us - not The Hague, not the Axis of Evil and no one else," he said on Saturday, referring to the Iran-aligned "axis of resistance" groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

"It is possible and necessary to continue until victory and we will do it," he added, saying most Hamas battalions in Gaza had been "eliminated."

Netanyahu is under growing domestic pressure to bring home hostages who have now been held in Gaza for 100 days, with thousands rallying in Tel Aviv to call for their release.

Health officials in Gaza said on Saturday Israeli strikes killed at least 60 people in the besieged territory. 

The Israeli military said it struck dozens of rocket launchers that were "ready to be used" in central Gaza and eliminated four "terrorists" in air strikes on Khan Yunis, Gaza's main southern city. It also reported that its engineers had destroyed a Hamas "command center" in central Gaza.

An Israeli siege has sparked acute shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel in Gaza, where the health system is collapsing.

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The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said during a visit to the Gaza Strip "the massive death, destruction, displacement, hunger, loss and grief of the last 100 days are staining our shared humanity."

He warned an entire generation of children in Gaza were being "traumatised", diseases were spreading and the clock was "ticking fast towards famine." Winter rains have exacerbated the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, where the UN estimates 1.9 million - nearly 85 percent of the population - have been displaced.

Many have sought shelter in Rafah and other southern areas where the health ministry says there isn't the infrastructure to support them. Gaza's health ministry spokesman accused Israel of "deliberately targeting hospitals... to put them out of service", warning of "devastating repercussions."

Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law, have been hit repeatedly by Israeli strikes in Gaza since the war began.

The Israeli military accuses Hamas of operating command centers in tunnels under hospitals, a charge the Islamist group denies. Fewer than half of Gaza's hospitals are functioning and those only partly, the World Health Organization says.

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