Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo: Cherie Cullen / WikiCommons.

JNS.org – The Israel Defense Forces is determined to destroy Hamas’s network of terror tunnels in Gaza “with or without a cease-fire,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday at an emergency cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv.

“Using their tunnel capability, Hamas could have kidnapped and murdered civilians and soldiers by simultaneously attacking from multiple tunnels. It is this capability that we are destroying,” Netanyahu said.

“So far we have neutralized dozens of terror tunnels and we are determined to complete this mission, with or without a cease-fire,” he added.

A delegation of senior Israeli officials traveled to Cairo on Wednesday to discuss cease-fire options with Egyptian defense officials, according to Israel Hayom, which cited Egyptian media reports. The Alyoum Alsabea newspaper reported that the delegation included Netanyahu’s representative attorney Isaac Molho, Shin Bet security agency chief Yoram Cohen, and the head of the Defense Ministry’s Diplomatic-Security Bureau, Amos Gilad.