Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes preparations for an offensive on the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip will "take a little time" as the Jewish state continued to hit other Palestinian areas on Wednesday.
The United States and other Western powers are worried about Israel extending its war south and into Rafah, which aid agencies say is home to 1 million people who fled from the north and central areas of Gaza because of Israeli bombardment.
In a video address on Wednesday, Netanyahu said that he had told US President Joe Biden during their last phone call that it was not possible "to complete the victory without the IDF entering Rafah in order to eliminate the remnants of Hamas's battalions."
Netanyahu reiterated that he had already approved the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) operational plan for Rafah, "and soon we will also approve the plan to evacuate the civilian population from the battle zones," he said.
Regarding his relationship with Biden, Netanyahu added: "At the beginning, we agreed that Hamas needs to be eliminated. But during the war, it is no secret, there have been disagreements between us on the best way to achieve this goal."
He said he had also agreed to Biden's request to send a delegation to Washington in the coming days. According to media reports, the US intends to present alternatives to a ground offensive.
The US president had asked "to present us with the proposals from his side in the humanitarian sphere, and also on other topics," said Netanyahu.
Sometimes Israel is in agreement with its allies and sometimes not, added Netanyahu. "In the end, we have always done what is vital for our security, and this is what we will do this time as well."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also due in Israel on Friday. He will hold talks on Rafah and on how to secure the release of over 100 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas after Islamist terrorists raided Israel on October 7 and killed over 1,200 people.
Hopes of some sort of ceasefire continue to grow, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz saying a truce is perhaps closer than it has been for a long time, but away from Rafah the fighting continued.
The Israeli army said it was intensifying its assault on the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the largest health facility in coastal strip.
"So far, the troops have killed around 90 terrorists in the area," the military said. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in the operation.
Israeli troops also arrested 160 suspects and brought them to Israel for further questioning, the army added, saying soldiers seized weapons during the operation.
The information could not be independently verified.
Some 50 Palestinian militants had already been killed at the hospital on Tuesday, Israel said, remarking that civilians, patients, doctors and medical equipment were not harmed.
On Monday, Israeli troops once again entered al-Shifa.
In a previous operations at the site, the Israeli army said it had found a tunnel complex belonging to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group which took over Gaza in 2007 after Israel withdrew two years earlier.
Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilian infrastructure such as hospitals and schools as its headquarters or weapons stores.
Hamas denies using hospitals for military purposes.
On the other side of Israel in the Palestinian West Bank, the Israeli air force said it had targeted a vehicle in the city of Jenin which it believes was carrying militants.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the missile strike killed three people and injured another, with Palestinian media saying the dead were from the Islamic Jihad movement.
The Israeli military said the missile attack was aimed at two senior members of the organization. One had carried out a fatal attack on an Israeli last year, it said, and the second was a "commander of terrorist infrastructure in the area of Jenin."