Israel is turning a deaf ear to international calls for an end to bloodshed in Gaza with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to keep on fighting until Hamas is obliterated.

Netanyahu aired this pledge before allied lawmakers belonging to Likud Party on Christmas and barely 24 hours after Israel’s air force pounded Central Gaza with powerful bombs that caused the death of 70 people, including women and children.

International media reported that 250 people died in the past 24 hours on Christmas.

Pope Francis lamented the unabated killings that has also prompted the clergy in Israel-occupied Bethlehem to call off traditional celebrations in the place where Jesus Christ was born 2,000 years ago. Bethlehem is a city located in the West Bank, Palestine.

Netanyahu told political allies that the on-going military campaign against the Hamas will continue until the Palestinian armed group has surrendered or is wiped out.

Now in hiding, Hamas forces are still keeping at least 250 hostages snatched during a surprise attack it carried out on October 7. Hundreds of Israelis, including children, were massacred during the attack.

“We are not stopping. The war will continue until the end, until we finish it, no less,” declared Netanyahu on Christmas Day.

Bucking calls from the international community, including ally United States, for an end to the war, Netanyahu said peace will only return if the three conditions the Israeli government imposed are met.

“Hamas must be destroyed, Gaza must be demilitarized, and Palestinian society must be de-radicalized,” the Israeli leader stated.

Some 20,700 Gaza residents have already been killed since the retaliatory strikes and Israel’s re-occupation of Palestinian territory started following the October 7 Hamas attack.