Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the war in Gaza was exacting a "very heavy price" as the toll of Israeli soldiers killed in fighting with Hamas mounted.
"This is a difficult morning, after a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza... The war is exacting a very heavy price... but we have no choice but to keep fighting," Netanyahu said in a statement, after the army announced that 15 soldiers had been killed in the Palestinian territory since Friday.
The fatalities brought the number of soldiers killed since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict to 486 since Oct. 7, according to military figures.
"We are continuing with full force until the end, until victory, until we achieve all of our goals: the destruction of Hamas, the return of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to the State of Israel," he added.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, killing at least 20,424 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 54,036 others, according to health authorities in the enclave.
Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory's housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.
