Even if the truce “delays” the planned offensive on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, it will leave Israel only “several weeks” from “total victory”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured Sunday, AFP reported.

“Complete victory is in our hands, not in a few months, but in a few weeks, when we start the operation,” he said in an interview with the American channel CBS.

Rafah is the “last bastion” of Hamas, according to Netanyahu, who decided to launch the offensive despite international protests.

According to the UN, almost 1.5 million Palestinians have crowded into this city, which is adjacent to the closed border with Egypt.

“If we have an agreement (on a ceasefire), (the offensive) will be delayed a bit, but it will happen,” Netanyahu said.

He said he would hold a meeting with army officials on Sunday who would show him “this dual plan, the plan to evacuate (the civilian population) and the plan to destroy the remaining battalions” of Hamas fighters.

According to an AFP journalist, at least six Israeli airstrikes took place on Saturday night in Rafah.

In the interview, Netanyahu also said that “there is room” for civilians to “go north of Rafah, to the areas where we have finished the fighting.”

Speaking about negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza in exchange for the release of the hostages, Netanyahu said “we will make the progress we all want” if “Hamas withdraws its delusional demands and turns them into reality.”

“We’re all working” on that deal, he said. “We want him, he wants him because we want to free the rest of the hostages,” but “I don’t want to tell you if we’re going to get to him.”

At recent talks in Paris aimed at achieving a ceasefire in Gaza, a “basis of understanding” was found, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan (Agerpres) said on Sunday.