Referring to a phone call on Saturday with Joe Biden, the US president, Mr Netanyahu said: “I told Biden we will fight until there is total victory, however long it takes. The US understands this.”
The call came as it emerged that Mr Biden reportedly stopped Israel from carrying out a pre-emptive strike on Hezbollah in Lebanon just four days after the Oct 7 attacks.
The US persuaded Israel to call off the strike even as its warplanes were in the air on their way to strike Hezbollah targets, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Mr Netanyahu denied the US had intervened to stop its strike, however.
“There have been reports that the US has prevented, and is preventing, us from carrying out operations in the region. This is not true. Israel is a sovereign country,” Mr Netanyahu said on Sunday.
“Our decisions on the war are based on our operational considerations, and not external pressures.”
A high death toll of Israeli soldiers will likely test public support for the war inside Israel, where anger is already mounting again against embattled Mr Netanyahu.
