Israeli defence minister tells 'friends and enemies' Israel will achieve war aims

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told Israel's "enemies and friends" on Wednesday that it would do whatever necessary to achieve its war aims in Gaza and the north, in an apparent response to U.S. pressure to halt its operation in Rafah.

The comments, at a ceremony to commemorate Israel's war dead, followed U.S. President Joe Biden's warning that the United States would halt weapons supplies if Israel moved into Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than a million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.

"I turn to Israel's enemies as well as to our best of friends and say - the State of Israel cannot be subdued," he said, according to remarks released by his office. "We will stand strong, we will achieve our goals - we will hit Hamas, we will hit Hezbollah, and we will achieve security."

The comments, from one of the war cabinet ministers considered to be most sensitive to the risk of alienating the United States, underlined the scale of the standoff between the Biden administration and the Israeli government.

In a comment on X, formerly Twitter, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reposted comments from his speech on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"I say to the world leaders, no pressure, however heavy, no decision by any international forum, will deter Israel from defending itself. If Israel is forced to stand alone, it will do so," Netanyahu said.

Britain's Sky News said a source close to the Israeli leader told the broadcaster that Biden's weapons threat "practically buries a hostage deal at this point".

Israeli tanks seized control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt earlier this week and are currently probing the outskirts of the nearby city of Rafah.

Netanyahu has defied mounting international pressure to agree to a ceasefire but has not so far ordered troops to enter the city, where Israel says four battalions of Hamas fighters are based.

In the north, Israeli forces have been engaged in exchanges of fire across the Lebanon border with forces of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia ever since the start of the war in Gaza last October.

"We have no choice, we have no other country. We will do whatever is necessary, and I repeat - whatever is necessary, in order to defend the citizens of Israel, to remove the evil threats against us, and to stand up to those who attempt to destroy us," said Gallant, at the ceremony.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie. Additional reporting by Maytaal Angel; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Toby Chopra)