Israel has no plans to end its fight against Hamas in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, despite recent comments by President Biden about a "red line" on fighting.
"We have our agreements on the basic goals but our disagreement on how to achieve them," Netanyahu said Monday on Fox News.
But he said the decisions on when to stop the battle are up to Israel.
"Our necks are on the line," he said. "I'm telling you that we're not getting off the gas."
President Biden has been frustrated by a lack of a cease-fire and publicly warned Netanyahu in recent days.
"He has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas," Biden said Saturday in an MSNBC interview. "But he must, he must, he must pay more attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken. He's hurting...in my view, he's hurting Israel more than helping Israel."
Netanyahu said Monday that Israel wants to protect innocent civilians but needs to destroy Hamas.
"He (Biden) agrees that we have to destroy Hamas as a fighting organization. That's what we intend to do. Look, it's either Israel or Hamas. There's no middle way," Netanyahu said.
"I mean, we have to have that victory. We can't have three-quarters of a victory."
Netanyahu also cited polls that indicate a majority of Americans support the war.
The Fox News hosts repeatedly asked Netanyahu about Biden's hot mic moment at Thursday's State of the Union address, in which Biden said he needed to have a "come to Jesus" conversation with him.
Netanyahu said he was "not familiar with the term."
"I can tell you that if it means having a heart-to-heart conversation, we've had that plenty of times over the 40 years that I've known Joe Biden and over the 12 or 13 conversations that we've had since the beginning of the war," he continued.
"Victory is at hand," Netanyahu said. "The victory will come as soon as - I think it will come sooner - the more united we are. Not divided."
