Israel tells top US official war will last 'months'

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES —  Israel's defense minister warned Thursday the war with Hamas would last "more than several months" as he met a top US official amid a rift between the allies over the timeline and conduct of the campaign.

The war, now in its third month, began after the Palestinian group's unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel that Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

In response, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched an unrelenting military offensive that has left swathes of Gaza in ruins. The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said 18,787 people have been killed, mostly women and children.

In Gaza's southern city of Khan Yunis, smoke rose from a grey landscape of rubble which people combed with shovels and their bare hands after a strike. One man sat on the broken concrete, wiping his eyes.

"Around four people are still stuck under the rubble" after an airplane hit the building "without a warning", said Hassan Bayyout, 70.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

In their meeting, Gallant warned that Israel's fight with Hamas "will require a period of time -- it will last more than several months, but we will win and we will destroy them".

Later in the day, the White House underlined that the United States wanted a swift end to the war.

"I think we all want it to end as soon as possible," White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Kirby said that Washington was "not dictating terms" to Israel and that the timeline given by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant was "consistent" with what Israeli officials had previously said.

But during his visit to Israel, Sullivan had asked "hard questions" of Israeli officials about the course of their offensive against the Palestinian territory, the spokesman added.

US President Joe Biden, whose government has provided Israel with billions of dollars in military aid, delivered his sharpest rebuke of the war this week. He said Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza was eroding international support.

But Netanyahu vowed to carry on "until victory" and